Article
Tailoring Mobile Data Collection for Intervention Research in a Challenging Context: Development and Implementation in the Malakit Study
Registro en:
LAMBERT, Yann et al. Tailoring Mobile Data Collection for Intervention Research in a Challenging Context: Development and Implementation in the Malakit Study. JMIR Form Res., v. 6, n. 6, e29856, p. 1 - 17, 2022.
1438-8871
10.2196/29856
Autor
Lambert, Yann
Galindo, Muriel
Suárez-Mutis, Martha
Mutricy, Louise
Sanna, Alice
Garancher, Laure
Cairo, Hedley
Hiwat, Helene
Miller, Jane Bordalo
Gomes, José Hermenegildo
Marchesini, Paolo
Adenis, Antoine
Nacher, Mathieu
Vreden, Stephen
Douine, Maylis
Resumen
Background: An interventional study named Malakit was implemented between April 2018 and March 2020 to address malaria
in gold mining areas in French Guiana, in collaboration with Suriname and Brazil. This innovative intervention relied on the
distribution of kits for self-diagnosis and self-treatment to gold miners after training by health mediators, referred to in the project
as facilitators.
Objective: This paper aims to describe the process by which the information system was designed, developed, and implemented
to achieve the monitoring and evaluation of the Malakit intervention.
Methods: The intervention was implemented in challenging conditions at five cross-border distribution sites, which imposed
strong logistical constraints for the design of the information system: isolation in the Amazon rainforest, tropical climate, and
lack of reliable electricity supply and internet connection. Additional constraints originated from the interaction of the multicultural
players involved in the study. The Malakit information system was developed as a patchwork of existing open-source software,
commercial services, and tools developed in-house. Facilitators collected data from participants using Android tablets with ODK
(Open Data Kit) Collect. A custom R package and a dashboard web app were developed to retrieve, decrypt, aggregate, monitor,
and clean data according to feedback from facilitators and supervision visits on the field.
Results: Between April 2018 and March 2020, nine facilitators generated a total of 4863 form records, corresponding to an
average of 202 records per month. Facilitators’ feedback was essential for adapting and improving mobile data collection and
monitoring. Few technical issues were reported. The median duration of data capture was 5 (IQR 3-7) minutes, suggesting that
electronic data capture was not taking more time from participants, and it decreased over the course of the study as facilitators
become more experienced. The quality of data collected by facilitators was satisfactory, with only 3.03% (147/4849) of form
records requiring correction. Conclusions: The development of the information system for the Malakit project was a source of innovation that mirrored the
inventiveness of the intervention itself. Our experience confirms that even in a challenging environment, it is possible to produce
good-quality data and evaluate a complex health intervention by carefully adapting tools to field constraints and health mediators’
experience.