The use of the road to health card in monitoring child health

Objectives: The Road to Health Chart (RTHC) provides a simple, cheap, practical and convenient method of monitoring child health. The RTHC could assist with vaccine compliance and early identification of growth faltering, to improve general health. The purpose of the study was to assess whether the RTHCs were adequately completed and interpreted at primary, secondary and tertiary care levels in South Africa. Methods: The study was carried out at a primary, secondary and tertiary care centre. A questionnaire was administered to 100 subjects from each; seeking demographic information, whether the RTHC was brought along, and if not why it was not brought. Results: Most children were brought by their mothers. The RTHC was not brought to 48% of the consultations; of those, about 72% thought that bringing the RTHC along was not necessary. Health workers seldom asked to see the RTHC at the primary and secondary care settings, but 50% of them did so at Ga-Rankuwa Hospital (p = 0,002). In only 8 cases overall were the children below the 3rd percentile of weight-for-age. Approximately 20% had incomplete immunisations. Conclusions: Many parents believe that the RTHC is only required for Well-baby-clinic visits, not for consultations. The RTHC is not often asked for at consultations; the fact that this is more often done at the tertiary care centre may be that much of the service is supplied by paediatricians-in-training. Health workers should ask to see the RTHC, in order for mothers to understand the importance of the information. The study showed that the RTHC is not used to its full potential. South African Family Practice Vol. 49 (1) 2007: pp. 1

Validating child vaccination status in a demographic surveillance system using data from a clinical cohort study: evidence from rural South Africa

<p><b>Background:</b> Childhood vaccination coverage can be estimated from a range of sources. This study aims to validate vaccination data from a longitudinal population-based demographic surveillance system (DSS) against data from a clinical cohort study.</p> <p><b>Methods:</b> The sample includes 821 children in the Vertical Transmission cohort Study (VTS), who were born between December 2001 and April 2005, and were matched to the Africa Centre DSS, in northern KwaZulu-Natal. Vaccination information in the surveillance was collected retrospectively, using standardized questionnaires during bi-annual household visits, when the child was 12 to 23 months of age. DSS vaccination information was based on extraction from a vaccination card or, if the card was not available, on maternal recall. In the VTS, vaccination data was collected at scheduled maternal and child clinic visits when a study nurse administered child vaccinations. We estimated the sensitivity of the surveillance in detecting vaccinations conducted as part of the VTS during these clinic visits.</p> <p><b>Results:</b> Vaccination data in matched children in the DSS was based on the vaccination card in about two-thirds of the cases and on maternal recall in about one-third. The sensitivity of the vaccination variables in the surveillance was high for all vaccines based on either information from a South African Road-to-Health (RTH) card (0.94-0.97) or maternal recall (0.94-0.98). Addition of maternal recall to the RTH card information had little effect on the sensitivity of the surveillance variable (0.95-0.97). The estimates of sensitivity did not vary significantly, when we stratified the analyses by maternal antenatal HIV status. Addition of maternal recall of vaccination status of the child to the RTH card information significantly increased the proportion of children known to be vaccinated across all vaccines in the DSS.</p> <p><b>Conclusion:</b> Maternal recall performs well in identifying vaccinated children aged 12-23 months (both in HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected mothers), with sensitivity similar to information extracted from vaccination cards. Information based on both maternal recall and vaccination cards should be used if the aim is to use surveillance data to identify children who received a vaccination.</p&gt