ArticleHealth policy and planning2016
Using routine health information systems for well-designed health evaluations in low- and middle-income countries.
Article in Health policy and planning, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 100 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
100 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Application of the Expert Recommendations for Implementing Change (ERIC) compilation of strategies to health intervention implementation in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review.Implementation science : IS · 2023Pooled it
- Assessing the quality of care for children attending health facilities: a systematic review of assessment tools.BMJ global health · 2021Pooled it
- Routine Health Information Systems in the European Context: A Systematic Review of Systematic Reviews.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Pooled it
- Use of interrupted time series methods in the evaluation of health system quality improvement interventions: a methodological systematic review.BMJ global health · 2020Pooled it
- Using routine health information data for research in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review.BMC health services research · 2020Pooled it
- Integration of pre-exposure prophylaxis services into public HIV care clinics in Kenya: a pragmatic stepped-wedge randomised trial.The Lancet. Global health · 2021Trial
- Assessing the burden of HPV-associated cancers in Brazil: Hospitalization and mortality trends from 2011 to 2019.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2026Article
- Digital innovations and health information systems: Lessons learned from implementing ALMANACH in Nigeria.PLOS digital health · 2026Article
- Comparing routine health information quality and associated factors among health facilities in the eastern zone of Tigray, Ethiopia, 2019/20: a cross-sectional study.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2026Article
- Maternal and child healthcare coverage and trends: refugee vs. non-refugee districts in Uganda.Conflict and health · 2026Article
- Monitoring and evaluation of health disparities for people with disability in low- and middle-income countries: a scoping review.Epidemiologic reviews · 2026Article
- Assessing the impact of a facility-based digital intervention on district-level data quality in rural Burkina Faso.BMJ global health · 2026Article
- Food Label Readability and Consumption Frequency: Isolating Content-Specific Effects via a Non-Equivalent Dependent Variable Design.Nutrients · 2026Article
- Assessing the effectiveness of seasonal malaria chemoprevention on malaria burden among children under 5 in northern Benin: a statistical modelling approach.BMJ public health · 2026Article
- Contextual determinants of implementation of stakeholder-selected quality indicators in Indian intensive care units: a mixed-methods evaluation within a national registry network.Frontiers in health services · 2026Article
- Mapping the evidence on environmental health services in healthcare facilities in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic literature inventory of over 4,000 studies.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Integrating oral pre-exposure prophylaxis delivery in primary care family planning clinics: a pragmatic, stepped-wedge, cluster-randomised trial.The Lancet. Primary care · 2025Article
- Impact of Control Interventions on Malaria Incidence in the General Population of Mali.Journal of epidemiology and global health · 2025Article
- A protocol for an assessment of the health information system in Khomas region, Namibia.PloS one · 2025Article
- Assessing the availability and scope of routine data on post-pregnancy family planning: A cross-sectional review of registers and reporting tools in 18 low- and middle-income countries.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
40 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Routine health information systems (RHISs) are in place in nearly every country and provide routinely collected full-coverage records on all levels of health system service delivery. However, these rich sources of data are regularly overlooked for evaluating causal effects of health programmes due to concerns regarding completeness, timeliness, representativeness and accuracy. Using Mozambique's national RHIS (Módulo Básico) as an illustrative example, we urge renewed attention to the use of RHIS data for health evaluations. Interventions to improve data quality exist and have been tested in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs). Intrinsic features of RHIS data (numerous repeated observations over extended periods of time, full coverage of health facilities, and numerous real-time indicators of service coverage and utilization) provide for very robust quasi-experimental designs, such as controlled interrupted time-series (cITS), which are not possible with intermittent community sample surveys. In addition, cITS analyses are well suited for continuously evolving development contexts in LMICs by: (1) allowing for measurement and controlling for trends and other patterns before, during and after intervention implementation; (2) facilitating the use of numerous simultaneous control groups and non-equivalent dependent variables at multiple nested levels to increase validity and strength of causal inference; and (3) allowing the integration of continuous 'effective dose received' implementation measures. With expanded use of RHIS data for the evaluation of health programmes, investments in data systems, health worker interest in and utilization of RHIS data, as well as data quality will further increase over time. Because RHIS data are ministry-owned and operated, relying upon these data will contribute to sustainable national capacity over time.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.