Health data management practice and associated factors among health professionals working at public health facilities in resource limited settings

Abstract

Background: Despite the vast amount of resources invested in the development of health information systems, health professionals in developing countries are still suffering from lack of adequate skill to perform health data management activities. There is a lack of sound evidence to overcome health data management challenges in this setting. This study aimed to assess health data management practice and its associated factors among health professionals working at public health facilities in North Wollo Zone, Northeast Ethiopia. Methods: A quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted at public health facilities in North Wollo Zone, Northeast Ethiopia from March 2 to April 15, 2020. A total of 715 health professionalswere selected using a stratified random sampling technique. EpiData version 4.6 and STATA version 15 were used for data entry and analysis, respectively. Descriptive statistics were computed. Multi-variable logistic regression analyses techniques were carried out to show the association between explanatory and outcome variables. Odd ratio at 95% confidence level was used to describe the strength of association. Results: A total of 643 health professionals participated in this study. The response rate was 90%. Among them, 56.1% (95% CI: 52.3%–59.9%) demonstrated good data management practice. Working in health center [AOR=1.31 (95% CI: 1.853, 2.003)], having knowledge on data management [AOR=3.74 (95% CI: 2.454, 5.713)], favorable attitude toward data management [AOR=2.64 (95% CI: 1.746, 3.976)], high competency level on data management tasks [AOR=3.12 (95% CI: 1.873, 5.197)], friendliness of data management format [AOR=2.26 (95% CI: 1.478, 3.454)], supervision [AOR=1.78 (95% CI: 1.153, 2.745)] and training [AOR=1.84 (95% CI: 1.115, 3.022)] were significantly associated with good practice of health data management. Conclusion: Health data management practices of health professionals’ were found to be inadequate. Capacity building to enhance health professionals’ data management knowledge, attitude and their competency level, providing continuous supportive supervision, designing friendly data management format, providing comprehensive data management training are necessary measures to improve data management practice in this study setting.