Abstract
The paper tools used to monitor outreach work in all major cities in Viet Nam had substantial writing requirements for each contact with difficulty maintaining confidentiality. This paper describes the development of a Unique Identifier Code (UIC), a field data collection notebook (databook) and a computer data entry system in Viet Nam. The databook can document 40 individual clients and has space for commodity distribution, group contacts and needles/syringe collection for each month. Field implementation trials of the UIC and databook have been undertaken by more than 160 peer outreach workers to document their work with people who inject drugs (PWID) and sex workers (SW). Following an expanded trial in Hai Phong province, there have been requests for national circulation of the databook to be used by peer educators documenting outreach to PWID, SW and men who have sex with men. The standardized UIC and databook, in a variety of locally adapted formats, have now been introduced in more than 40 of the 63 provinces in Viet Nam. This development in Viet Nam is, to our knowledge, the first example of the combination of a confidential UIC and an innovative, simple pocket-sized paper instrument with associated customized data-entry software for documenting outreach.
Highlights
The HIV epidemic in Viet Nam remains in a concentrated stage with signs that it may have begun to stabilize over the last two years
There has been some decrease in HIV prevalence among people who inject drugs (PWID) and female sex workers (SW) in most provinces
According to the Viet Nam national 2011 sentinel surveillance, HIV prevalence among PWID and SW remains high, at 13.4% and 3%, respectively; Integrated Biological and Behavioural Surveillance 2009 data indicate that prevalence among men who have sex with men (MSM) remains high at 16.7%
Summary
This development in Viet Nam is, to our knowledge, the first example of the combination of a confidential UIC and an innovative, simple pocket-sized paper instrument with associated customized data-entry software for documenting outreach. Previous paper instruments to collect client contact data by peer outreach workers, under the variety of projects in Viet Nam, had problems with reliability of data recording, confidential monitoring of individuals and recording of commodity distribution and other services. In 2008, Population Services International (PSI) in Viet Nam initiated development of a Unique Identifier Code (UIC) for their programmes with PWID and SW in Viet Nam.[5,6] PSI undertook a test of several proposed UICs on large databases of names in university lists (>4000 student names in two cities) to identify the sequence of likely initials and numbers able to be generated from an individual’s family name, location and age that could generate a de-identifying code with low duplication rates (less than 2.5% for example).
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