NIMR goes for phone survey in health outreach
DAR ES SALAAM: The National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) through Information and communication technologies (ICT) has introducing a nationwide Mobile Phone Survey on health in a journey aimed at reaching more citizens.
Making the revelation in Dar es Salaam on Monday, NIMR Director General, Professor Said Aboud noted that they have decided to use the mobile phone method, especially to track information on non-communicable diseases as well as ensuring that data of all citizens is gathered on time both in (Mainland) Tanzania and Zanzibar.
Prof Aboud said that in collaboration with the Ministry of Health the survey will be for a period of four to six weeks and involve citizens aged 18 and above.
Elaborating, the Director General said that their priority will be on non-communicable diseases, adding that they have now become a major challenge facing the society and the world in general.
In Tanzania, non-communicable diseases have rapidly increased from year to year.
He said, information from the health ministry shows an increase in patients with non-communicable diseases in hospitals, where data collected in various health centers in the country shows that from July 2022 to March 2023, most patients who visited the institutions were those suffering from high blood pressure, diabetes and diseases of the respiratory system.
He further said that according to the World Health Organization (WHO) these ailments have doubled from 19 per cent in 1990 to 34 per cent in 2015 and are estimated to contribute to 33 per cent of all deaths.
“This situation reminds us that there is a need to set strong strategies to deal with this challenge. Accurate information on the state of these diseases and their indicators is one of the important pillars to enable the ministry of health and the government in general to plan solid strategies to deal with them, but also to measure the progress of various interventions that are being taken to fight diseases,” Mr Aboud said
He added;” Due to the large increase in the use of mobile phones, NIMR has seen that it is the right time to use mobile phones in the collection and processing of data. This will be a very simple method and will be able to overcome the long-standing obstacles in data collection and monitoring. It will help us gather important information on time and also enable us to advise the government on health issues.”
He also noted that on behalf of the Ministry of Health, NIMR has been conducting strategic studies on the status of various diseases and how to deal with them, where their recent step survey was conducted in 2023/24, including studies where the initial report is soon to be released.
However, he asked citizens to be cooperative once they receive a call from the institution by providing the necessary information according to what they will be asked.
On her part, a Principle Researcher at NIMR, Dr Mary Mayige said that normally they used to conduct house to house surveys, but seeing that it was more expensive and time consuming, they saw it best to embark on mobile phone surveys.
“This survey will be of two parts the first part will base on checking the effectiveness of those who participated in the house-to-house survey, trying to compare the answers they gave in the beginning and the ones they will give this time and the second part is when we shall select numbers to call according to people’s ages and all this will be free,” she noted.
