Community-based Data Collection Research Articles

Methods of nutrition surveillance in low-income countries.

BackgroundIn 1974 a joint FAO/UNICEF/WHO Expert Committee met to develop methods for nutrition surveillance. There has been much interest and activity in this topic since then, however there is a lack of guidance for practitioners and confusion exists around the terminology of nutrition surveillance. In this paper we propose a classification of data collection activities, consider the technical issues for each category, and examine the potential applications and challenges related to information and communication technology.AnalysisThere are three major approaches used to collect primary data for nutrition surveillance: repeated cross-sectional surveys; community-based sentinel monitoring; and the collection of data in schools. There are three major sources of secondary data for surveillance: from feeding centres, health facilities, and community-based data collection, including mass screening for malnutrition in children. Surveillance systems involving repeated surveys are suitable for monitoring and comparing national trends and for planning and policy development. To plan at a local level, surveys at district level or in programme implementation areas are ideal, but given the usually high cost of primary data collection, data obtained from health systems are more appropriate provided they are interpreted with caution and with contextual information. For early warning, data from health systems and sentinel site assessments may be valuable, if consistent in their methods of collection and any systematic bias is deemed to be steady. For evaluation purposes, surveillance systems can only give plausible evidence of whether a programme is effective. However the implementation of programmes can be monitored as long as data are collected on process indicators such as access to, and use of, services. Surveillance systems also have an important role to provide information that can be used for advocacy and for promoting accountability for actions or lack of actions, including service delivery.ConclusionThis paper identifies issues that affect the collection of nutrition surveillance data, and proposes definitions of terms to differentiate between diverse sources of data of variable accuracy and validity. Increased interest in nutrition globally has resulted in high level commitments to reduce and prevent undernutrition. This review helps to address the need for accurate and regular data to convert these commitments into practice.

Gauging convergence on the ground: Code-switching in the community

Is grammatical convergence between bilinguals’ two languages inevitable and does code-switching inherently promote it? Despite the burgeoning of bilingualism studies, this question—and even what should count as code-switching—remains contentious. Cumulative scientific advances will depend on attention to the social context in which bilingual phenomena arise, proper handling of spontaneous speech data, and consideration of the probabilistic constraints underlying occurrence rates of linguistic forms. We put forward this program of study as implemented in systematic quantitative analysis of linguistic structures in the New Mexico Spanish-English Bilingual (NMSEB) corpus. This unique compilation of bilingual speech by members of the Hispanic northern New Mexican community in the United States records both borrowing and—vitally—copious multi-word code-switching. Advancing the study of bilingualism is community-based data collection and accountable analysis of the linguistic conditioning of variation in both of the languages in contact as used by the bilinguals themselves, in comparison with appropriate benchmarks, again of both languages (monolingual, or earlier, varieties). The role of code-switching in convergence is evaluated through a novel on-line measure, comparisons based on the proximity of spontaneous use of the other language. Implementation of this test of proximate code-switching confirms a disjunction between bilinguals’ phonology, which is more labile, and morpho-syntax, which is stable. Variation is conditioned by intra-linguistic contextual features, the distribution of which, however, may shift under code-switching, shaping patterns in the bilingual community.

Rising trends of obesity and abdominal obesity in 10 years of follow-up among Tehranian adults: Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study (TLGS).

Some recent studies have shown stablity or declining trends in obesity while others still report increasing trends. The present study aimed to investigate the trends of obesity and abdominal obesity in Tehranian adults during a median follow-up of 10 years. Prospective cohort study. Community-based data collection from the Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study (TLGS). Participants from four phases of the TLGS from 1999 to 2011 (n 10,368), aged ≥20 years. The crude prevalence of obesity and abdominal obesity increased from 23·1% and 47·9% at baseline to 34·1% and 71·1% at the end of follow-up, respectively. Generalized estimating equation (GEE) models were used to analyse the correlated data and calculate the relative risks (RR). Risks of obesity and abdominal obesity increased over the whole study period for men (RR=1·62; 95% CI 1·49, 1·76 and RR=1·46; 95% CI 1·41, 1·52, respectively) and women (RR=1·24; 95% CI 1·19, 1·29 and RR=1·22; 95% CI 1·18, 1·27, respectively). These rising trends were observed in all subgroups regardless of age, marital status and educational level. Trends of obesity and abdominal obesity are increasing in Tehranian adults during a decade of follow-up in both genders and in all study subgroups. These results underscore the still growing obesity epidemic in the capital of Iran, calling for urgent action to educate people in lifestyle modifications and the need for effective preventive and educational strategies on obesity.

How to Accommodate Women With Mobility Limitations in Biological Studies

People with disabilities should be routinely included in research studies if there is no specific reason for their exclusion. Regardless, they may be inadvertently excluded because of the procedures of the study. By conducting a community-based biological study with women aging with mobility limitations, these authors gained further understanding of their accommodation needs during research participation. The women aging with mobility limitations offered specific physical, cultural, or environmental needs that could have influenced the methods, procedures, and possible outcomes involved when conducting a biological study with this community living population. The authors and participants identified methodological challenges for women with mobility impairments within three key areas: recruitment procedures, laboratory procedures, and community-based data collection. The authors propose possible solutions to these identified challenges. It is our hope that this will begin a larger dialogue on how to routinely accommodate people with disabilities in biological research studies.

Community Child Psychiatric Medication Experiences Measured by an Internet-Based, Prospective Parent Survey of Retail Pharmacy Customers

One thousand five hundred parents filling a psychiatric prescription for their 6-18 year old child with a multi-state retail pharmacy chain received a single mailed invitation to complete a detailed online survey. 276 parents responded (18.4%). 60% of children on medications had a parent rated CBCL scale score in the clinically significant range at enrollment (T score ≥65), with a similar frequency of clinically significant CBCL scores through 15 months of survey followup. 47% of medication regimens were noted to be causing persistent side effects. This simple community based data collection method can offer a unique way to investigate naturalistic treatment outcomes.

Human Computation VGI Provenance: Semantic Web-Based Representation and Publishing

The collection of volunteered geographic information (VGI) is a user-generated content practice to engage a large number of citizens to collectively create geospatial data. Based on the advent of Web 2.0 and the recent increasing popularity of crowdsourcing approaches, VGI has gained the interest of the geoscience community, because of its ability to complement the collection of geographic information coming from traditional sensing technologies. However, the involvement of a crowd of volunteers, potentially untrained or nonexperts, implies that VGI can be of varying quality. Tracing VGI provenance enables the recording of the collection activity; the information about who gathered what, where and when can then be employed to judge the VGI quality. In this paper, we focus on the adoption of a provenance-based Human Computation approach to aggregate and consolidate VGI. We discuss the representation, inference and publication of Human Computation VGI and its provenance. As more and more of those community-based data collection efforts happen on the Web, we propose the adoption of Semantic Web technologies, through employing an ontological formulation to capture provenance and by following Linked Data principles to publish provenance data on the Web.

The Incidence of Positional Plagiocephaly: A Cohort Study

The objective of this study was to estimate the incidence of positional plagiocephaly in infants 7 to 12 weeks of age who attend the 2-month well-child clinic in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. A prospective cohort design was used to recruit 440 healthy full-term infants (born at ≥37 weeks of gestation) who presented at 2-month well-child clinics for public health nursing services (eg, immunization) in the city of Calgary, Alberta. The study was completed in 4 community health centers (CHCs) from July to September 2010. The CHCs were selected based on their location, each CHC representing 1 quadrant of the city. Argenta's (2004) plagiocephaly assessment tool was used to identify the presence or absence of plagiocephaly. Of the 440 infants assessed, 205 were observed to have some form of plagiocephaly. The incidence of plagiocephaly in infants at 7 to 12 weeks of age was estimated to be 46.6%. Of all infants with plagiocephaly, 63.2% were affected on the right side and 78.3% had a mild form. To our knowledge, this is the first population-based study to investigate the incidence of positional plagiocephaly using 4 community-based data collection sites. Future studies are required to corroborate the findings of our study. Research is required to assess the incidence of plagiocephaly using Argenta's plagiocephaly assessment tool across more CHCs and to assess prevalence at different infant age groups. The utility of using Argenta's plagiocephaly assessment tool by public health nurses and/or family physicians needs to be established.

Identifying Cardiovascular Risk Factors in a High-Risk Community: Strategies to Address Cardiovascular Health Disparities

National health care data consistently reveal a significant disparity in the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors, morbidity and mortality among African-Americans and Latinos, especially in low socioeconomic communities. Community-based outreach screening programs have been described as an essential component of strategies to address cardiovascular health disparities. However, no prior study has documented the ability of these programs to accurately identify the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in high-risk communities or provide population specific (ethnicity, gender) data within a community. In this cross-sectional study of Central Harlem residents in New York City, based on data obtained from a community outreach program, we have collected and analyzed various clinical parameters to evaluate cardiovascular risk factors within the Harlem community. We have observed that a high percentage of African- Americans have hypertension, obesity and smoking habits as compared to other ethnic groups. African- American women are significantly more likely to have obesity and dyslipidemia than African- American men. In addition, we have identified a concerning subpopulation of community residents who report not having a primary care doctor and therefore have limited access to regular medical care. The study results correspond to nationally collected data which validate the findings and demonstrate the outreach program’s ability to accurately identify cardiovascular risk factors in a high-risk community. These findings further emphasis the importance of community outreach programs in addressing cardiovascular health disparities by educating and motivating populations affected by disparities and performing community-based data collection which can guide intervention strategies.

People Reclaiming the Public Health System: Community-based Monitoring and Planning in Maharashtra

Community-based monitoring and planning (CBMP) of health services is being implemented in selected areas of Maharashtra with support from National Rural Health Mission since 2007. CBMP processes are organised at village, Primary Health Centre, block, district and state levels by a network of nodal civil society organisations working with the State health department. Key components include multistakeholder monitoring committees at various levels; community-based data collection and filling of health report cards; organising public hearings and periodic state level dialogues, with community-based planning focused on appropriate utilisation of untied funds. Various indicators show positive impact of these processes in CBMP areas such as significant rise in positive ratings of public health services over time, increase in utilisation of PHC services in Thane district and numerous positive ‘stories of change’. However, key policy decisions are now required to ensure optimal effectiveness, generalisation and sustainability of such community action processes.

Fish catch data: Less than what meets the eye

A recent opinion piece published in Nature summarises the differing views held by Pauly on the one hand, and by Hilborn and Branch on the other, regarding the challenge faced by fishery scientists in accurately determining the status of the world's fisheries. Both commentaries discuss whether the fisheries catch data published by FAO can by themselves be used to infer fishery status. The purpose of this short communication is to examine both views and to propose additional solutions to contribute to the understanding of fishery status globally. These may include expanding data-poor stock assessment methods as well as community-based data collection and monitoring programs, particularly in developing countries.

ENGLISH

The present study is to work out a suitable model for community-based data collection and education, keeping public library network at the locus of the model. The study has reviewed the profile of Thailand with regards demographic data and healthcare delivery system particularly at grass root level. The study analysed the existing status and activities of public library network, its building blocks and framework for data-collection and education of the community. http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/djlit.33.2.4194

Taking Neighborhood Health to Heart (TNH2H): Building a Community-Based Participatory Data System

Healthy People 2020 calls for increased monitoring of local health and health disparities, but successful models of designing and implementing data collection systems for this purpose are lacking. We describe the process, methods, and outcomes of a community-based participatory research initiative, Taking Neighborhood Health to Heart, designed to collect and disseminate comprehensive health data from 5 diverse urban neighborhoods in Denver, Colorado. Since its beginning in 2006, this initiative has involved community members in collection of individual health surveys from 1,146 households; audits of sidewalks, buildings, and other built environment features in 412 neighborhood blocks; audits of availability, price, and quality of fresh produce in 69 local stores; and audits of conditions and amenities in 20 local parks. Community members and researchers share, interpret, and disseminate these data through a joint data review and dissemination committee. Through our community-based data collection system, Taking Neighborhood Health to Heart has been able to collect, analyze, and disseminate locally relevant data on people and neighborhoods to monitor heath and health disparities. Since 2006, the initiative has sustained its focus on community-based participatory research that targets collection and dissemination of local health data. We have used this information to identify salient health issues and advocate for neighborhood programs, policies, and environmental changes to built and social features of neighborhoods that have historically led to unequal opportunities and social disadvantage.

Influence of weather on emergency transport events coded as stroke: population-based study in Japan

Studying the relation between incidence of stroke and weather is difficult because it requires large-scale community-based data collection. Despite the lack of strong evidence that weather conditions influence stroke incidence, many clinicians feel that meteorological conditions influence the onset of stroke. This study examined whether emergency events related to stroke are influenced by meteorological factors and was based on computerized records of emergency medical transport services in a Japanese city during the period January 1992-December 2003. A total of 53,585 patients transported for an event coded as stroke were analyzed in relation to meteorological factors such as temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure. Poisson regression analysis was applied to clarify the influence of daily meteorological conditions on the daily incidence of emergency transport due to events coded as stroke. Ordinary least squares regression analysis was used to evaluate the influence of weather, defined as the combination of meteorological parameters, on the occurrence of emergency transport due to events coded as stroke. Daily mean ambient temperature and daily mean relative humidity showed a statistically significant negative effect on the incidence of the emergency transport events for both men and women (P<0.001). Daily mean barometric pressure was not significantly related to these events. The occurrence of a holiday was negatively related to the incidence (P<0.001). Dry weather and cool weather were likely to shift the circadian curve of the incidence upward. Thus, occurrence of emergency transport due to events coded as stroke is likely to be associated with weather conditions.