Open-source electronic data capture system offered increased accuracy and cost-effectiveness compared with paper...

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Health Informatics
• Epidemiology

Background:

• Electronic data capture tools are often too expensive or technically challenging for resource-limited settings.
• Large-scale multicenter studies in sub-Saharan Africa require accessible data collection solutions.
• The African Partnership for Chronic Disease Research (APCDR) developed an open-source electronic questionnaire (EQ).

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the relative validity of the APCDR open-source electronic questionnaire (EQ).
• To compare the EQ's performance against traditional pen-and-paper data collection methods.

Main Methods:

• A comparative validation study was conducted.
• 200 randomized interviews were performed, comparing the EQ with pen-and-paper methods.
• The study was set within an ongoing type 2 diabetes case-control study in South Africa.

Main Results:

• The EQ exhibited a significantly lower error frequency (0.17 errors/100 questions) compared to paper (0.73 errors/100 questions; P≤0.001).
• The EQ demonstrated a lower monetary cost per correctly entered question.
• Interview durations were comparable between the EQ (5.4 minutes) and paper methods (5.6 minutes).

Conclusions:

• The APCDR EQ offers improved accuracy and cost-effectiveness over traditional paper-based data collection.
• The EQ provides a viable solution for data collection in resource-limited settings, maintaining similar interview efficiency.
• The open-source APCDR EQ software is freely available for implementation in research studies.