{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,27]],"date-time":"2026-02-27T05:11:50Z","timestamp":1772169110061,"version":"3.50.1"},"update-to":[{"DOI":"10.12688\/wellcomeopenres.15811.1","type":"new_version","label":"New version","source":"publisher","updated":{"date-parts":[[2020,12,1]],"date-time":"2020-12-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1606780800000}}],"reference-count":36,"publisher":"F1000 Research Ltd","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,12,1]],"date-time":"2020-12-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1606780800000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000865","name":"Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["OPP1141321"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["OPP1141321"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000865","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100010269","name":"Wellcome Trust","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["106158"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["106158"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100010269","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["wellcomeopenresearch.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Wellcome Open Res"],"abstract":"<ns3:p>Electronic data capture systems (EDCs) have the potential to achieve efficiency and quality in collection of multisite data. We quantify the volume, time, accuracy and costs of an EDC using large-scale census data from the STRATAA consortium, a comprehensive programme assessing population dynamics and epidemiology of typhoid fever in Malawi, Nepal and Bangladesh to inform vaccine and public health interventions.<\/ns3:p>\n                  <ns3:p>A census form was developed through a structured iterative process and implemented using Open Data Kit Collect running on Android-based tablets. Data were uploaded to Open Data Kit Aggregate, then auto-synced to MySQL-defined database nightly. Data were backed-up daily from three sites centrally, and auto-reported weekly. Pre-census materials\u2019 costs were estimated. Demographics of 308,348 individuals from 80,851 households were recorded within an average of 14.7 weeks range (13-16) using 65 fieldworkers. Overall, 21.7 errors (95% confidence interval: 21.4, 22.0) per 10,000 data points were found: 13.0 (95% confidence interval: 12.6, 13.5) and 24.5 (95% confidence interval: 24.1, 24.9) errors on numeric and text fields respectively. These values meet standard quality threshold of 50 errors per 10,000 data points. The EDC\u2019s total variable cost was estimated at US$13,791.82 per site.<\/ns3:p>\n                  <ns3:p>In conclusion, the EDC is robust, allowing for timely and high-volume accurate data collection, and could be adopted in similar epidemiological settings.<\/ns3:p>","DOI":"10.12688\/wellcomeopenres.15811.2","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,12,1]],"date-time":"2020-12-01T06:45:27Z","timestamp":1606805127000},"page":"66","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.12688\/wellcomeopenres.crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Electronic data capture for large scale typhoid surveillance, household contact tracing, and health utilisation survey: Strategic Typhoid Alliance across Africa and Asia"],"prefix":"10.12688","volume":"5","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4845-7862","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Deus","family":"Thindwa","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2342-8531","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yama G.","family":"Farooq","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Mila","family":"Shakya","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Nirod","family":"Saha","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Susan","family":"Tonks","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yaw","family":"Anokwa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0629-0884","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Melita A.","family":"Gordon","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Carl","family":"Hartung","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"James E.","family":"Meiring","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7361-719X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Andrew J.","family":"Pollard","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4573-449X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Robert S.","family":"Heyderman","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"name":"The Strategic Typhoid alliance across Africa and Asia consortium","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"2560","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,12,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref-1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e7","DOI":"10.2196\/jmir.8.2.e7","article-title":"Who's using PDAs? 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Research"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/wellcomeopenresearch.org\/articles\/5-66\/v2\/xml","content-type":"application\/xml","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/wellcomeopenresearch.org\/articles\/5-66\/v2\/pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/wellcomeopenresearch.org\/articles\/5-66\/v2\/iparadigms","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2024,1,10]],"date-time":"2024-01-10T08:20:22Z","timestamp":1704874822000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/wellcomeopenresearch.org\/articles\/5-66\/v2"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2020,12,1]]},"references-count":36,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.12688\/wellcomeopenres.15811.2","relation":{"has-review":[{"id-type":"doi","id":"10.21956\/wellcomeopenres.18126.r41690","asserted-by":"subject"},{"id-type":"doi","id":"10.21956\/wellcomeopenres.18126.r41690","asserted-by":"object"}],"has-preprint":[{"id-type":"doi","id":"10.1101\/2020.03.02.20030056","asserted-by":"object"},{"id-type":"doi","id":"10.21203\/rs.2.11641\/v1","asserted-by":"object"}]},"ISSN":["2398-502X"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2398-502X","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2020,12,1]]},"assertion":[{"value":"Indexed","URL":"https:\/\/wellcomeopenresearch.org\/articles\/5-66\/v2#article-reports","order":0,"name":"referee-status","label":"Referee status","group":{"name":"current-referee-status","label":"Current Referee Status"}},{"value":"10.21956\/wellcomeopenres.18126.r41690, Sylvester Maleghemi, World Health Organization, Port Harcourt, 07 Dec 2020, version 2, indexed","URL":"https:\/\/wellcomeopenresearch.org\/articles\/5-66\/v2#referee-response-41690","order":0,"name":"referee-response-41690","label":"Referee Report","group":{"name":"article-reports","label":"Article Reports"}},{"value":"10.21956\/wellcomeopenres.17339.r39897, Jillian S Gauld, Institute for Disease Modeling, Seattle, WA, 02 Sep 2020, version 1, indexed","URL":"https:\/\/wellcomeopenresearch.org\/articles\/5-66\/v1#referee-response-39897","order":1,"name":"referee-response-39897","label":"Referee Report","group":{"name":"article-reports","label":"Article Reports"}},{"value":"<b>Deus Thindwa<\/b>; \n<i>Posted: 23 Nov 2020<\/i>; \n<i>This paper provides an excellent overview of a substantial electronic data capture system, implemented in three different locations. I appreciate the detailed tables and schematic figures, as well as the cost and timeline data being published. This study would be very helpful for other settings deciding on whether to implement such a system, and identify potential issues to be aware of.<\/i> \n<b>Response<\/b>: Thank you.  \n<i>However, there is a narrative challenge throughout the paper. It is unclear after reading through the introduction, what the purpose of this particular paper was. Is it a summary of a novel tool? If so, what is novel about it as compared to other EDC\u2019s? Or, if this is a descriptive study of a large scale implementation of an electronic system, what other large scale surveillance studies have failed to report this type of accuracy data, and how does this impact the quality of research? I think it would be helpful to the reader to more thoroughly ground the paper in a very clear introduction and purpose.<\/i> \n<b>Response<\/b>: The last paragraph of the introduction has been revised to make clear the purpose\/rationale of developing the EDC (Lines 80-89).  \n<i>Similarly in the discussion, I appreciated the comparison of the EDC\u2019s costs and accuracy to other systems. However, there is only a limited discussion of what might be driving these differences. For example, are the different error rates driven by the rate of text-based data entry, or the type of disease being surveyed? For costs, are all of these studies geo-locating individuals? Investigating these differences further would very much strengthen the discussion and conclusions made.<\/i> \n<b>Response<\/b>: See our response to this to \u201cReviewer 1 point 13&quot;.  \n<i>For Figure 3, I am not sure this is displayed correctly, or I may be misunderstanding what is being displayed. It appears that the post-retraining error is 1 minus the pre-retraining error for each field worker. Presumably some field workers may benefit less than others from the re-training?<\/i> \n<b>Response<\/b>: It interprets as the proportion of all errors committed per fieldworker e.g. if fieldworker 1 committed 10 errors pre-retraining and 5 errors post-retraining then 10\/15 (67%) for pre-retraining and 5\/15 (33%) for post-retraining are the % errors.  \n<i>Paragraph 2 of the methods seems to be summarized at least partly in Figure 1, so would remove.<\/i> \n<b>Response<\/b>: In the spirit of keeping manuscript text independent from figures, we were previously advised by a reviewer to include the text in case some readers don\u2019t have to check Figure 1.  \n<i>Some of the terms (preloading, looping) not obvious to a general audience, can you define?<\/i> \n<b>Response<\/b>: Thank you, these terms have been defined on their first appearances. (Lines 120-122)  \n<i>&quot;All the other errors exposed by&nbsp;the external SQL queries were investigated thoroughly in the&nbsp;field before corrections could...&quot;&nbsp;This section was a bit unclear - what are the other errors? Any non-GPS errors, or those that couldn't be auto-corrected through the SQL script?<\/i> \n<b>Response<\/b>: This sentence has been slightly revised by deleting prefix \u201cAll the other\u201d. The sentence refers to errors listed under Lines 123-131  \n<i>&quot;The maximum number of visits to the household prior declaring the&nbsp;household vacant or errors permanently unresolved was twice.&quot; Would move this to results.<\/i> \n<b>Response<\/b>: Thank you, this has now been moved to results (Lines 250-251).  The operation and implementation sections could be switched in order in the paper.&nbsp; \n<b>Response<\/b>: It is the Journal\u2019s editorial advice to put them in the current order.  \n<i>The first time I see the 12 hour upload frequency is in the discussion unless I missed it, this should be in the methods somewhere<\/i> \n<b>Response<\/b>: This has already been indicated in the Methods section. \u201cThen data were collected in the field during the day and temporarily saved in the tablet\u2019s memory. At the end of each day, tablets were returned to the base STRATAA data office and data were uploaded from the tablet\u2019s memory to ODK Aggregate server via a secure wireless network technology.\u201d (Lines 159-162)  \n<i>Is the rationale for developing the new software tool clearly explained? No<\/i> \n<b>Response<\/b>: The last paragraph of the introduction has been revised to make clear the purpose\/rationale of developing the EDC (Lines 80-89).  \n<i>Is the description of the software tool technically sound? Yes<\/i> \n<b>Response<\/b>: Thank you.  \n<i>Are sufficient details of the code, methods and analysis (if applicable) provided to allow replication of the software development and its use by others? Yes<\/i> \n<b>Response<\/b>: Thank you.  \n<i>Is sufficient information provided to allow interpretation of the expected output datasets and any results generated using the tool? Yes<\/i> \n<b>Response<\/b>: Thank you.  \n<i>Are the conclusions about the tool and its performance adequately supported by the findings presented in the article? Partly<\/i> \n<b>Response<\/b>: We have expanded conclusions acknowledging what would be limitations of implementing the EDC (Lines 373-376).","URL":"https:\/\/wellcomeopenresearch.org\/articles\/5-66\/v2#referee-comment-4432","order":2,"name":"referee-comment-4432","label":"Referee Comment","group":{"name":"article-reports","label":"Article Reports"}},{"value":"10.21956\/wellcomeopenres.17339.r39895, Myron Levine, Michael Sikorski, Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, 03 Sep 2020, version 1, indexed","URL":"https:\/\/wellcomeopenresearch.org\/articles\/5-66\/v1#referee-response-39895","order":3,"name":"referee-response-39895","label":"Referee Report","group":{"name":"article-reports","label":"Article Reports"}},{"value":"<b>Deus Thindwa<\/b>; \n<i>Posted: 23 Nov 2020<\/i>; \n<i>The authors present a comprehensive custom electronic data capture system designed using open source tools and applied to a series of field censuses across three sites (one in Africa and two in Asia), targeting ~100,000 persons per site.<\/i>  \n<i>The EDC system employs best-practices in data management, including quality control tools, automated data validation, and secure backups.<\/i> \n<i>The authors clearly describe the software data system and illustrate the flow of data using two effective figures.<\/i> \n<i>All components of the software system are available in the public domain and clearly annotated.<\/i>  \n<b>Response<\/b>: Thank you.  \n<i>The results are both credible and clear-cut with regards to data management. However, with respect to the ability to extrapolate this method to other sites, there is a basic assumption that high quality and trainable workers can be mobilized and dedicated to allocate 13-16 weeks on such an activity&nbsp;and that funding will be available for the personnel and transportation costs to utilize this EDC system in the field. We note that STRATAA represents a consortium of highly experienced sites with core funding and that each participating site was selected, in part, for their &quot;paper-based studies of high participant volume and logistical complexity.&quot;<\/i> \n<b>Response<\/b>: We have added a sentence to acknowledge that our approach may not be a practicable scenario in some low-income settings. (Lines 328-331).  \n<i>Expanded discussion of the limitations and external validity of this study would help; including a discussion of&nbsp;how comparator studies cited in the discussion were selected, when they were conducted, and whether they are comparable given the potential differences in technology.<\/i> \n<b>Response<\/b>: We have added a sentence to acknowledge limitations as per your suggestions. (Lines 304-307).  \n<i>Major limitations to a successful demographic survey include the costs of the staff and the time\/cost for transportation, stable WiFi, electricity, and GPS signals.<\/i> \n<b>Response<\/b>: We have added a sentence to capture the limitation of not being able to estimate other related costs. (Lines 364-366).  \n<i>In summary: where adequate core funding, staffing, and transportation are readily available, the EDC system presented by the authors is likely to be readily adaptable as an upgrade to paper-based or outmoded electronic systems at a reasonable cost.<\/i> \n<b>Response<\/b>: Agree, we have added this to conclusions (Lines 375-376).  \n<i>Is the rationale for developing the new software tool clearly explained? Yes<\/i> \n<b>Response<\/b>: Thank you.  \n<i>Is the description of the software tool technically sound? Yes<\/i> \n<b>Response<\/b>: Thank you.  \n<i>Are sufficient details of the code, methods and analysis (if applicable) provided to allow replication of the software development and its use by others? Yes<\/i> \n<b>Response<\/b>: Thank you.  \n<i>Is sufficient information provided to allow interpretation of the expected output datasets and any results generated using the tool? Yes<\/i> \n<b>Response<\/b>: Thank you.  \n<i>Are the conclusions about the tool and its performance adequately supported by the findings presented in the article? Partly<\/i> \n<b>Response<\/b>: We have expanded conclusions acknowledging what would be limitations of implementing the EDC (Lines 373-376).","URL":"https:\/\/wellcomeopenresearch.org\/articles\/5-66\/v2#referee-comment-4433","order":4,"name":"referee-comment-4433","label":"Referee Comment","group":{"name":"article-reports","label":"Article Reports"}},{"value":"10.21956\/wellcomeopenres.17339.r39896, Gagandeep Kang, Division of Gastrointestinal Sciences, Christian Medical College, Vellore, 03 Sep 2020, version 1, indexed","URL":"https:\/\/wellcomeopenresearch.org\/articles\/5-66\/v1#referee-response-39896","order":5,"name":"referee-response-39896","label":"Referee Report","group":{"name":"article-reports","label":"Article Reports"}},{"value":"<b>Deus Thindwa<\/b>; \n<i>Posted: 23 Nov 2020<\/i>; \n<i>Electronic data capture is essential for clinical research. Data quality has been an issue, particularly where field staff with limited education are responsible for data capture. The authors have described how they built an eCRF using Open Data Kit and MySQL and deployed it for capturing data from over 300,000 individuals from 80,000 households.<\/i> \n<b>Response<\/b>: Thank you.  \n<i>The group collected baseline data from households for a census with an error rate of less than 50 per 10,000 in all three sites. Expectedly, text fields had more errors. While low, the error rate in Nepal was almost double other sites. It would be useful to know whether there were specific fields that were problematic in one location and not others? Or whether the errors were distributed evenly across field staff?<\/i> \n<b>Response<\/b>: We only categorised fields as receiving text or numeric inputs. The problematic text fields were evenly distributed across sites but with more problems in Nepal than Bangladesh than Malawi (see Table 1). Such differences across sites could be due to fieldworker abilities and experience (Figure 3). There was substantial reductions in errors post-retraining in Nepal and Bangladesh.  \n<i>A key issue with electronic data capture is the availability of internet access and the group has addressed the combination with offline collection and twice daily uploading. It would help to have clarity on whether there are country-level regulatory\/legal issues with the data being hosted with the Oxford Vaccine Group?<\/i> \n<b>Response<\/b>: Thank you, the study design was reviewed and approved by each country\u2019s national research ethics committee as well as Oxford University. We provide approval numbers under \u201cEthics approval and consent to participate\u201d.  \n<i>While this was not included in the scope of the paper, the authors\u2019 comments on whether baseline census information data collection accuracy was comparable to data collected during follow-up or plans for future analysis would be helpful.<\/i> \n<b>Response<\/b>: Thank you, we have added a sentence to capture your suggestion. Indeed we plan to re-evaluate accuracy following additional studies under STRATAA (Lines 348-249)  \n<i>Is the rationale for developing the new software tool clearly explained? Yes<\/i> \n<b>Response<\/b>: Thank you.  \n<i>Is the description of the software tool technically sound? Yes<\/i> \n<b>Response<\/b>: Thank you.  \n<i>Are sufficient details of the code, methods and analysis (if applicable) provided to allow replication of the software development and its use by others? Yes<\/i> \n<b>Response<\/b>: Thank you.  \n<i>Is sufficient information provided to allow interpretation of the expected output datasets and any results generated using the tool? Yes<\/i> \n<b>Response<\/b>: Thank you.  \n<i>Are the conclusions about the tool and its performance adequately supported by the findings presented in the article? Yes<\/i> \n<b>Response<\/b>: Thank you.","URL":"https:\/\/wellcomeopenresearch.org\/articles\/5-66\/v2#referee-comment-4434","order":6,"name":"referee-comment-4434","label":"Referee Comment","group":{"name":"article-reports","label":"Article Reports"}},{"value":"Funding for the STRATAA study has been provided by a Wellcome Trust Strategic Award (no. 106158), https:\/\/wellcome.ac.uk\/funding\/managing-grant\/grantsawarded,\r\nand the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (no. 617 OPP1141321),\r\nhttps:\/\/www.gatesfoundation.org\/How-We-Work\/Quick-Links\/Grants-Database to AJP. The Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Programme and the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Vietnam are supported by the Wellcome Trust with Major Overseas Programme core awards. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.","order":7,"name":"grant-information","label":"Grant Information"},{"value":"This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.","order":0,"name":"copyright-info","label":"Copyright"}]}}