ArticleGlobal health action2021
Methodological considerations in establishing and maintaining longitudinal health workforce studies: Lessons learned from the WiSDOM cohort in South Africa.
Article in Global health action, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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5 citing papers in PubMed, 3 citations in OpenAlex.
- Satisfaction with clinical practice environments among early-career health professionals in South Africa: findings from the WiSDOM cohort study.International journal for quality in health care : journal of the International Society for Quality in Health Care · 2026Article
- Longitudinal tracking of healthcare professionals: a methodological scoping review.BMC medical research methodology · 2025Article
- Article
- Perspectives of the cohort of health professionals in the WiSDOM study on the learning environment, transformation, and social accountability at a South African University.Medical education online · 2023Article
- Learning from the experiences of midwifery students and recent graduates in humanitarian and conflict-affected settings: A prospective cohort study protocol.Women's health (London, England)Article
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4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
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Abstract
backgroundHealth workforce cohort studies are uncommon in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs), especially those in sub-Saharan Africa.
objectiveDescribe the methodology and lessons learned from establishing and maintaining the WiSDOM (
methodsWiSDOM is a prospective longitudinal cohort study that commenced in 2017. The cohort focuses on the eight professional groups of clinical associates, dentists, doctors, nurses, occupational therapists, oral hygienists, pharmacists and physiotherapists. Annual, electronic follow-up surveys have been conducted in 2018, 2019 and 2020 with informed consent. Key steps in establishing the WiSDOM cohort include consultation, communication and marketing, stakeholder feedback, resources and infrastructure. Retention strategies consist of an electronic database, detailed cohort contact information, cohort engagement, communication and feedback, short survey tools, and appropriate incentives.
resultsWe obtained an overall response rate of 89.5% at baseline in 2017, 79.6% in 2018, 68.3% in 2019 and 72.8% in 2020. The largest decline in response rates is for medical doctors: 66.0% response rate in 2018, 53.2% in 2019 and 58.2% in 2020. However, for each of the three follow-up surveys, we have obtained response rates in excess of 80% for clinical associates, dentists, nurses, oral hygienists, pharmacists and physiotherapists. Since baseline, the outright refusals have remained very low at 4.7%. The multiple logistic regression analysis showed that self-identified race was the only significant socio-demographic difference between medical doctor respondents and non-respondents. Black African doctors and Indian doctors were 2.0 and 2.6 times more likely respectively to respond than White doctors (p < 0.05).
conclusionOther LMICs can learn from WiSDOM's lessons of establishing and maintaining a health professional cohort that aims to generate new knowledge for health system transformation.
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