Investigation of Key Factors Affecting Quality of Patient Data from National Antiretroviral Therapy Electronic Medical Record System in Malawi

The Ministry of Health in Malawi implemented a National Antiretroviral Therapy Electronic Medical Record system currently deployed in over 150 health facilities. It thus expected quality and timely quarterly cohort reports. However, the raw electronic reports are rarely complete, accurate and consistent requiring cleaning hence being delayed. Such reports are now very critical under the COVID-19  pandemic. Adopting a mixed-method approach, this study assessed the key factors that affect quality of data entered in the electronic medical records system and the reports produced by the system. The study interviewed 134 health-care workers in 17 sites and 10 Baobab Health Trust officers. Observations were conducted and secondary data analysed. The analysis shows that the EMRs lacks proper documentation and validation rules, making it hard to maintain and increasing chances of duplicate entry, respectively. Coupled with lack of trained personnel, it was revealed that one set of login credentials is used by multiple users and vital data elements being null compromising security and completeness, respectively. The electronic medical records system was not used at 40% of the sites as a point of care system hence being used as a back-data entry tool. Thus, there is need to revise the system to include necessary validations, security features, back data-entry form and data quality dashboards. Keywords: Electronic Medical Records system, Data Quality, System Quality, Information Qualit

Factors Influencing Extension Workers’ Behavioural Intentions Towards Digital Farm Technologies in Malawi

Information and Communication and digital farm technologies are vital in improving agriculture produc-tion. Despite introducing digital farm technologies in Malawi, the country continues to have low agriculture production. The country has a low uptake of technology, which is a major driving factor of agriculture productivity. Therefore, this research aims to examine factors that influence the behavioural intention of extension workers towards using digital farm technologies to improve agriculture production. The research covers 14 districts of Malawi, where the digital farm technology, National Agriculture Management Infor-mation System (NAMIS), is currently operational. Centring on the Theory of Planned Behaviour and the quantitative study approach showed that perceived behaviour control and subjective norms influence be-haviour intention. At the same time, attitude is not a significant determinant of behaviour intention of using digital farm technologies

Road Traffic Accidents Severity Modelling in Malawi

One of the significant problems Malawi faces today is the rate at which road traffic accidents and deaths are happening on the roads of Malawi. It is very crucial to effectively address such a problem with a limited budget considering that Malawi is a developing country. To supplement the current safety measures, traffic accidents data mining using machine learning models was considered. Being able to predict the severity of an accident as well as determining the weight each attribute contributes to the severity could help authorities make informed decisions. Therefore, this research aimed at modeling the severity of road accidents in Malawi to help reduce traffic accidents or the severity with limited budgetary resources. Using python, three classification algorithms were employed to model the severity of an accident. The algorithms included; Decision trees, Logistic regression and Support Vector Machines. These models were evaluated using accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score. The logistic regression performed better than the other two and after fitting the model it was discovered that the top three attributes that contributed to fatal accidents were accidents involving a moving vehicle and a pedestrian, accidents that occurred at Dawn or Dust, and accidents involving a moving vehicle and a bicycle

Interdependences between Smallholder Farming and Environmental Management in Rural Malawi: A Case of Agriculture-Induced Environmental Degradation in Malingunde Extension Planning Area (EPA)

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Analysing Road Traffic Situation in Lilongwe: An Agent Based Modelling (ABM) Approach

A 15, 451 km road network forms the main mode of transport for Malawi with 26 % paved. With increasing number of vehicles and elongated travel times during rush hour the study analysed the traffic situation on the M1 road between Mchinji and Area 18 roundabouts in Lilongwe City using an agent-based model (ABM). The methodology used game theory’s traffic grip model to analyse traffic flow by controlling traffic variables such as lights, speed limits and the number of vehicles. Each intersection was treated as non-cooperative game where each agent tried to minimize its queue resulting into Q−Nash’s equilibrium as the solution. The ABM tested the empirical relationships of traffic flow parameters in terms of density, flow, acceleration, deceleration, speed, time lost in traffic congestion and fuel consumption. The model was calibrated using traffic data collected through observing 1,312 vehicles sampled against 24,977. The observation results from the road junctions reveal that on average, a vehicle takes 20 mins 18 seconds, 37 minutes 6 seconds, 44 minutes 21 seconds and 58 minutes 53 seconds to exit Chitukuko, Bwandilo, Chilambula roads and Area 18 roundabout respectively upon entering the M1 at Mchinji roundabout. This data was then used to calibrate the business-as-usual model for the peak hour scenario for the road junctions. The model results show that a selected vehicle entering Chitukuko junction travels at an average speed of 22.60 km/hr, until it exits that junction. On average the selected motorists spend 2.52 l/km with a traffic density of 72 v/km. If dualized average speeds improved to 41.54 km/hr while the traffic density declined to 54.42 v/km, saving motorists MK 3,921,624.00 annually. The predictive model of the dual carriage informed that by 2021, commuters will spend MK 5,187,168 on fuel more than single-lane business as usual scenario of 2019

ATSA synthesis : Malawi chapter

Pre-publication copyMalawi has enacted almost no tobacco control legislation or regulations (2009). It is also one of the largest producers of tobacco on the continent and a top-ten producer in the world. Not surprisingly, it has not signed the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). With the importance of the tobacco industry firmly established, the Malawian tobacco control community argues unequivocally that all emphases concerning tobacco control must be placed on health concerns rather than production. As part of the African Tobacco Situational Analyses (ATSA) initiative, Malawi is among 12 countries that conducted a situational analysis

Analysis on the association among stunting, wasting and underweight in Malawi: an application of a log-linear model for the three-way table

Childhood undernutrition is an important public health problem. Many studies have investigated the factors of childhood undernutrition, but not the association between the undernutrition indicators. This study aimed at investigating the association between the childhood undernutrition indicators. A loglinear model of cell counts of a three way table of stunting, wasting, and underweight was fitted based on the 2010 Malawi demographic health survey data. Interaction terms in the model depicted deviations from independence. A multiple correspondence analysis of undernutrition indicators was also plotted to have a visual impression of association of the undernutrition variables. A loglinear model showed that underweight was associated with both stunting (P<0.001), and wasting (P<0.001). There was no association between stunting and wasting (P=1). Furthermore there was no three way association of stunting, wasting and underweight (P=1). Lack of three way interaction of stunting, wasting and underweight means that childhood undernutrition multidimensional nature is still valid, and no each indicator can represent the other

Reservoir Sedimentation and Flood Control: Using a Geographical Information System to Estimate Sediment Yield of the Songwe River Watershed in Malawi

Severe watershed degradation continues to occur in the tropical regions of southern Africa. This has raised interest to harness and manipulate the potential of the watershed resources for human benefit as the populations grow. Songwe River is one such degrading watershed causing biennial flooding among other problems. In this study, climatic, land use, topographic and physiographic properties were assembled for this watershed and used in a process-based Geographical Information System (GIS) with the aim of determining the hydrological sediment potential of Songwe River watershed and quantifying possibilities of reservoir sedimentation. The study further aimed at determining the critical sediment generating areas for prioritized conservation management and the relationship between the increasing flood events in the floodplains and the rainfall trends. Based on hydrological runoff processes using the Pan-European Soil Erosion Risk Assessment (PESERA) model, the estimated amount of sediment transported downstream is potentially huge. Most of the sediment generation was established to be occurring in the upper sub-basin and specifically from built up village and degraded natural land. These trends have not only caused the increased flooding events in the lower sub-basin, but also pose a great sustainability risk of sedimentation to the proposed reservoir.reservoir; sedimentation; PESERA; conservation; degradation; sustainability

Reservoir Sedimentation and Flood Control: Using a Geographical Information System to Estimate Sediment Yield of the Songwe River Watershed in Malawi

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