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Evaluation of a village-informant driven demographic surveillance system in Karonga, Northern Malawi

 

Andreas Jahn
Keith Branson
Amelia C. Crampin
Paul EM Fine
Judith R. Glynn
Nuala McGrath
Johnbosco Mwafilaso
Elenaus Mwaiyeghele
Venance Mwinuka
Basia Zaba

 
VOLUME 16 - ARTICLE 8
PAGES 219 - 248
Date Received: 15 Dec 2005
Date Published: 23 Mar 2007

http://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol16/8/

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Abstract
This paper describes and evaluates the first demographic surveillance system (DSS) in Malawi, covering a rural population of 30,000. Unlike others, the Karonga DSS relies on trained village informants using formatted registers for the primary notification of vital events and migrations. Seven project enumerators subsequently collect detailed data on events notified by the village informants, using stringent identification procedures for households and individuals. Internal movements are traced systematically to augment event registration and data quality. Continuous evaluation of data collection is built into the methods. A re-census conducted after 2 years indicated that the routine system had registered 97% of 1,588 births, 99% of 521 deaths and 92% of 13,168 movements.

Author's affiliation
Andreas Jahn
Karonga Prevention Study, Malawi
Keith Branson
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom
Amelia C. Crampin
Karonga Prevention Study, Malawi
Paul EM Fine
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom
Judith R. Glynn
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom
Nuala McGrath
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom
Johnbosco Mwafilaso
Karonga Prevention Study, Malawi
Elenaus Mwaiyeghele
Karonga Prevention Study, Malawi
Venance Mwinuka
Karonga Prevention Study, Malawi
Basia Zaba
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom

Keywords
demographic surveillance system, evaluation, INDEPTH network, Karonga, Malawi, methods, migration, village informant, vital registration

Word count (Main text)
6179

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