Completeness And Accuracy Of Electronic Recording Of Paediatric Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis In Cape Town, South Africa

Setting: Cape Town, South Africa.Objective: To assess the completeness and accuracy of electronic recording of drug-resistant tuberculosis (DRTB) in children.Design: Retrospective cohort study. All children aged <15 years treated for DR-TB during 2012 were included, with clinical data collected from routine health services. Matching was performed between clinical data and an extracted data set from an electronic register for DR-TB (EDR.web), and data sources were compared.Results: Seventy-seven children were identified clinically, of whom only 49 (64%) were found in EDR. web. Most data in EDR.web were complete and accurate, but there were some internal inconsistencies for confirmed TB. Only 4.4% of all EDR. web entries were children.Conclusion: Only two thirds of children clinically treated for DR-TB were recorded in the electronic reporting system, suggesting under-reporting. We also found a lower than expected prevalence of childhood DR-TB, probably suggesting both under-diagnosis and under-recording of DR-TB in children. Clinicians at facility level should be able to access the electronic reporting system, and data transfer between clinical paper-based and electronic sources should be simplified. Cross-linking between electronic registers for drug-susceptible and DR-TB or consolidation of registers could improve the accuracy of recording. Improved recording and reporting of DR-TB in children is needed.