Improving Linkage of Pregnant People Living with HIV to ART through Data Cleaning

In Taraba State, Nigeria, stakeholders identified a significant decrease in treatment coverage in ANC first visit mothers in Q4 FY22, with a few health facilities responsible for the coverage gap. A deep dive analysis revealed that the causes of the treatment coverage gap included lack of PMTCT data quality checks practice at facility level, no routine PMTCT data validation by state-level stakeholders, transcription errors from PMTCT daily register to monthly report, and transcription errors from PMTCT monthly report to quarterly report. To address these gaps, stakeholders and implementing partners agreed on strategies to strengthen capacity of staff responsible for PMTCT data entry from facilities, conduct routine data quality assessment (RDQA) of PMTCT data, and review daily and monthly ANC HIV testing, and ART enrollment registers at affected health facilities. Implementation of corrective actions began with the assignment of a supervisor to review PMTCT data and a dedicated staff member to review PMTCT cascade data from facilities before reporting to various information systems. Stakeholders also conducted routine data quality assessment (RDQA) of PMTCT data across facilities, and the State AIDS and STIs Control Program (SASCP) conducted RDQA of PMTCT data across facilities. Staff were trained on PMTCT data reporting, and implementing partners strengthened the capacity of staff responsible for PMTCT data entry from facilities. The impact of these corrective actions was significant, with health facilities participating in data cleaning exercises showing improved linkage of pregnant people living with HIV to ART. The coverage gap was closed in several facilities, and the remaining gap was reduced. The data cleaning exercises also led to improved data quality, with a significant reduction in transcription errors. The success of these efforts demonstrates the importance of data cleaning and quality assessment in improving the linkage of pregnant people living with HIV to ART. Taraba State, Nigeria, has a total of 32 health facilities, with 8 facilities having less than 95% coverage of pregnant people living with HIV to ART. The data cleaning exercises were conducted in collaboration with Data for Implementation (Data.FI), a five-year cooperative agreement funded by the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief through the U.S. Agency for International Development. The project is implemented by Palladium, in partnership with JSI Research & Training Institute (JSI), Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Department of Epidemiology, Right to Care (RTC), Cooper/Smith, DT Global, Jembi Health Systems, and Macro-Eyes, and supported by expert local resource partners.