The Development of Knowledge and Quality of Epidemiological Surveillance Data by Health Officer in Mahasarakham Province.

Mr. Mawin Tubsang

ADVISOR  Asst Prof. Dr. Kraison Chairojkanjana and Apirat  Sokumpung

DEGREE      M.P.H.  MAJOR Health System Management
UNIVERSITY Mahasarakham University DATE 2005

 

The quality of data from epidemiological surveillance is useful and highly important  to public health administration. The development of epidemiological surveillance data in health centers has been explored in order to compare the knowledge of public health officers and the quality of data of the epidemiological surveillance concerning the completeness, accuracy and promptness, including problems they might from 51 public health officers in 17 health centers, Muang District, Mahasarakham Province; obtained by the use of the purposive sampling technique. This health officers were trained in the knowledge of epidemiology amd the use of the “Epidem program”. They were visited every 2 months for 6 months. An evaluation was performed before and after the study. Data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics : the paired t-test and the Z-test.

 

The results showed that after training and 3 visits (every 2 months) , the public health officers increased scores of knowledge about epidemiology significantly (P<0.05). And the quality of data of the completeness, the accuracy and the promptness were increased to significantly (P<0.05). Moreover, the problems of working were sharply decreased after the intervention. Thus, this study is a good model for improving quality of the epidemiological surveillance data in public health centers.

In conclusion, training public health officers about knowledge of epidemiology and the use of “Epidem program” with 2 monthly visit cloud improve the public health officers’ knowledge and increase the quality of epidemiological surveillance data. Therefore, this program could be implemented in all public health centers.