NDMC – National Data Management Center for Health

NDMC hosts in-house scientific session

December 16, 2022NDMC Front Page News

The National Data Management Center for Health conducted its first scientific session on the 14 th of December, 2022. An output of a manuscript and a concept note were presented by staff members of the centre for discussions and feedbacks. Aspiring to bring tangible changes within the centre, the session is made with the following basic objectives. First, it aims to advance research and analytic methods, increase scientific credibility, and produce research outputs that are well analyzed to serve informed decision making. Second, it intends to increase the exchange of knowledge among staff members working within the center and at EPHI, at large. Last but not least, it will play an indispensable role in acculturating discussions on scientific discourses. In that regard, the centre has made a decision to arrange sessions every two weeks for good.

Climate and the Transmission of COVID-19: Exploring the Nexus

December 7, 2022NDMC Blog

Studies suggest that the prevalence of some diseases are determined by climatic factors. By
far, it has been proven that some respiratory infections occur due to climate. For instance, the
Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation unfolds that health impacts and deaths from
extreme heat are increasing, and these effects are expected to grow as global temperatures
continue to rise. Besides, very recently, WHO’s Director General has addressed that climate
change has become a serious issue causing many losses of lives. In that regard, it can be
asserted, if not claimed, that climate appears to be the next challenge of the global health
system.
It has been observed that people are prone to infections with changes in the climatic conditions. This has been shown by a study conducted by the National Data Management and Analytics Centre for Health, at the Ethiopian Public Health Institute. At the beginning, the study hypothesised that climatic conditions would, actually, bring an impact on the transmission rate of the COVID-19 pandemic. In that regard, it aimed to evaluate the effects of climatic factors such as temperature, rainfall, relative humidity, sunshine duration, and wind speed on the number of daily COVID-19 cases.
Geographically, the study was delimited to Addis Ababa (the capital city of Ethiopia). And methodologically, the study employed the log-link negative binomial regression model to fit the effect of climatic factors on COVID-19 transmission, from lag 0 to lag 14 days, as well as the Spearman’s rank correlation test to summarise the strength and direction of a relationship between two variables.
During the study period, a total of 245,101 COVID-19 cases were recorded in Addis Ababa, with a median of 337 new cases per day and a maximum of 1903 instances per day. As a result, a significant correlation between COVID-19 cases and humidity was observed with a 1% increase in relative humidity associated with a 1.1% [IRRs (95%CI) 0.989, 95% (0.97–0.99)] and 1.2% [IRRs (95%CI) 0.988, (0.97–0.99)] decrease in COVID-19 cases for 4 and 5 lag days prior to detection, respectively. The highest increase in the effect of wind speed and rainfall on COVID-19 was observed at 14 lag days prior to detection with IRRs of 1.85 (95%CI 1.26–2.74) and 1.078 (95%CI 1.04–1.12), respectively.
However, the findings revealed that none of the climatic variables affected the number of COVID-19 cases on the day of case detection (lag 0). Besides, it has been witnessed that daily average temperature and the duration of sunshine were not significantly linked with the risks of being caught with COVID-19 across the full lag period (p > 0.05).

Figure. Daily variation of sunshine duration and (a) Average daily temperature, (b) Rainfall, (c) Relative humidity, (d) Wind speed and (e) Sunshine duration from 10 May 2020 to 31 October 2021 in Addis Ababa Contrary to that, however, climatic factors such as humidity, rainfall, and wind speed influence the transmission of COVID-19 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. COVID-19 cases have shown seasonal variations with the highest number of cases reported during the rainy season and the lowest number of cases reported during the dry season. Hence, the study has
suggested that policy makers need to design strategies to combat the pandemic which are aligned with climate conditions.

Find the complete article with the link below:
http://(https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-24024-9)
For further references about the study use the contact below.
Fitsum Bekele Endashaw
Mobile: +251-912-113572
E-mail: amake2008@gmail.com or fbmetro@yahoo.com

Dr. Lia acknowledges NDMC’s endeavours via nature medicine

October 11, 2022NDMC Front Page News

The prominent journal publishing different issues on health and medical affairs, Nature Medicine, invited Dr. Lia Taddesse (Minister, MOH) to publish a perspective on the relevance of investing in health data to foster economic growth in low and middle-income countries. Content-wise, the article has addressed major issues related to data use in the health dynamics of low and middle-income countries. Above all, however, Ethiopia’s experience of managing and using health data for informed decision-making has been made a flagship all the way through. This has been shown by the astonishing jobs done by the collaborative project of IHME-EPHI on the subnational burden of disease estimation. More specifically, the activities conducted by the offspring of the collaboration, the National Data Management and Analytics Centre for Health at EPHI, have been put exemplary in archiving, analyzing, and interpreting data for informed decision-making. Finally, she has forwarded some remarks on how to improve data management practices in low and middle-income countries. Find the complete article with the link below.

More: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-02022-8

Ethiopia Hosts Collaborative GBD Training by Africa CDC, IHME and EPHI for East African Countries

September 11, 2022NDMC Front Page News

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), in collaboration with the African Union-Africa CDC and EPHI, has offered the first round 5 days training for participants from East Africa countries. The training, conducted from 5th to 9th of September, invited 14 countries of Eastern Africa: Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Sudan, South Sudan, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Eritrea, Comoros, Somali, Seychelles, Tanzania, and Mauritius. The training aimed to let participants understand GBD estimates, details of methods and data sources, data quality and gaps of data, creating collaboration for scientific informed decision making across East Africa countries.

The training was given by experts from the IHME on different issues including: demographics, causes of death, non-fatal health outcomes, risk factors, and policy applications. Practical experiences and success stories of EPHI’s National Data Management and Analytics Centre (NDMC) was shared and inspired many participants to amalgamate an enhanced data management system within their respective countries.

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IHME Offers Training on Subnational Burden of Disease Estimation in Ethiopia

September 2, 2022NDMC Front Page News

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) offered training on the sub-national burden of disease estimation on August 31 and September 1, 2022, at Raddison BLU hotel, Addis Ababa. The National Data Management Center for Health (NDMC) took the role of organizing the training; the whole training aimed to capacitate staff members of MOH, EPHI, GBD collaborators, researchers from universities, and representatives of Health and Demographic Surveillance sites (HDSS), officers from regional public health institutes and regional health bureaus on the sub-national burden of disease estimation. In the technical sense, it focused on estimating the burden and distribution of diseases in small areas. In that regard, demographics, causes of death, non-fatal health outcomes, risk factors, and policy applications were the areas given the emphasis in the training. By far, the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) has provided tools to quantify health loss from hundreds of diseases, injuries, and risk factors. The aim of doing so is to improve health systems and eliminate disparities.

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Antimicrobial Resistance: The Subsequent Challenge of Ethiopia’s Health Care System

August 4, 2022NDMC Blog

The World Health Organization declares that Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites change over time and no longer respond to medicines making infections harder to treat and increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death. This, in other words, implies that Antibiotics are becoming ineffective as drug-resistance spreads globally. As a result, this problem appears to have implications on the economy of different countries.

AMR is caused by many dynamics, but the most common ones, as explained by the WHO, include: the misuse and overuse of antimicrobials; lack of access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) for both humans and animals; poor infection and disease prevention and control in health-care facilities and farms; poor access to quality, affordable medicines, vaccines and diagnostics; lack of awareness and knowledge; and lack of enforcement of legislation. Globally, many studies have been conducted to show the scale and magnitude of problems caused by AMR. In that regard, the first comprehensive study published on The Lancet estimated that resistance itself caused 1.27 million deaths in 2019, and that antimicrobial-resistant infections played a role in 4.95 million deaths.

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Burden and Cause of Maternal Disorders in Sub-Saharan Africa: Trends and Patterns from 1990 to 2019

July 20, 2022NDMC 2022

Background

Maternal Mortality (MM) and Maternal Disorders (MDs) remain daunting global challenges.
The Sub-Saharan African (SSA) region has carried two-thirds of the global burden while Ethiopia alone has carried about 5% of the global burden.
Most of the causes of MDSs are preventable and treatable with available interventions and technologies. However, evidence are scarce on the causes of MDs, disease burden attributable to each cause and the changes over time in SSA countries to inform policies, strategies, programs and responses.
This study intends to address these evidence gaps using thirty years’ data from the Global Burden of Diseases (GBD) 2019 study for the entire SSA super-region, for Central (CSSA), Eastern (ESSA), Southern (SSSA) and Western (WSSA) regions and the countries in the regions.

Burden and Cause of Maternal Disorders in Sub-Saharan Africa: Trends and Patterns from 1990 to 2019

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Tracking progress in reducing/ending childhood malnutrition in Ethiopia: a scenario-based modeling study

December 31, 2021NDMC 2021 Evidence Briefs

Stunting, wasting, and underweight are three widely recognized indicators of child’s nutritional status, resulting in increased childhood morbidity and mortality in Ethiopia.
Ethiopia has been implementing several high-impact, efficient, targeted, and multi-dimensional nutrition specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions, to eliminate and mitigate the public health and socio-economic impacts of these malnutrition indicators. However, scenario-based modeling for tracking progress on the effect of these interventions to achieve health targets for these indicators is limited.
This evidence brief makes use of EDHS, UN, and GBD-2019 datasets to assess the prevalence of stunting, wasting, and underweight among under-five children and to predict their future trends in relation to the SDG and HSTP-II targets by varying major nutritional intervention coverages.

Malnutrition: The Long Living Death-Trap of Ethiopian Children

December 21, 2021NDMC Blog

Ethiopia faces many of the agonies faced by an underdeveloped country. However, with all the challenges out there, the country aspires to achieve many of the targets in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). For instance, the second goal of the SDG targets mentions that ending hunger, achieving food security and improved nutrition shall be achieved by the year 2030. This seems a big encounter for Ethiopia. In that regard, a disparity between Ethiopia’s real condition and the SDG targets has been shown by a modelling study conducted by the National Data Management Centre for Health and National Information Platform for Nutrition, both under EPHI. The modelling study was a scenario based modelling conducted to assess the prevalence of stunting, wasting, and underweight among under-five children. Moreover it has given prediction on the future trends of these metrics in relation to the SDG and HSTP-II targets by the expected coverage of the interventions.

Methodologically, the study used datasets from the Ethiopian Demographic Health Survey (EDHS), United Nation (UN), and Global Burden of Disease 2019 (GBD-2019). In technical senses, it assumes three scenarios depending on the expected coverage of the interventions. The first scenario assumes moderate increments in most interventions for the years of 2024 and 2030; the second assumes a substantial increment in most interventions for the same years; and the third scenario assumes hypothetical increments which can help to ending of all forms of malnutrition including eliminating stunting, wasting, and underweight by 2030.

The findings of the modelling study show the following major results. First, the projected prevalence of stunting for 2025 is 30.2%. This is a 29.4% decrement compared to the prevalence in 2012, but still 10.63% lesser than the required international intermediate reduction target of 40%. In addition, the projected stunting prevalence for 2024 (HSTP-II) and 2030 are 31.3% and 24.8%, respectively. This indicates that Ethiopia is implausible to meet SDG and HSTP-II targets of reducing stunting to 25% and SDG target of ending all forms of malnutrition in the respective years if the trend continues. Besides, it has been found that 26.1%, 5.4%, 4.4% of under-five deaths were attributable to wasting, stunting, underweight, respectively. Also, malnutrition attributed to 21.3%, 12.9% and 1.6% of under-five deaths caused by diarrheal diseases, Lower Respiratory Infection (LRI) and measles, respectively. This clearly shows deaths from diarrheal and LRI will remain threats in Ethiopia unless severe and acute malnutrition in under-five are avoided.

Figure: Trends of malnutrition indicators in Ethiopia

To deal with these unwanted risks, the study has recommended some action points.

Promoting, and supporting appropriate feeding practices for infant and young children is affirmative at any cost.
Increasing access to WASH services, intensification of measures such as encouraging the use of family planning, and promoting and strengthening education for women are crucial tasks.
Improving access to primary health care and strengthening the existing community-based platforms for nutrition education are vital to attaining an international target of ending all forms of malnutrition.

NDMC Hosts Workshop on System Customization for HDSS

November 26, 2021NDMC Front Page News

The National Data Management Centre for Health, at EPHI, has hosted a workshop between November, 23 -26, 2021 on the customization of HDSS database system and data sharing platform. Given that the purpose of Health and Demographic Surveillance Sites is to generate longitudinal information on the health and population of a geographically defined population, there is a need to upgrade the existing system employed to execute the data management of the sites. In technical senses, the workshop has presented short term plan that are aimed at alleviating the existing problems open HDS system. Hence, it has been agreed that the customization of the system needs to take place the sooner possible.

Participants in the workshop were representatives of 10 different universities (owning HDSS sites). Moreover, software experts of the NDMC have also taken part in the workshop. Apparently, an action plan, with specific details, on how to customize the existing database system of HDSS has been prepared. Besides, major inputs for the software have been identified and incorporated into the plan. The workshop was coordinated by a staff member of NDMC and a technical assistant to HDSS sites – Mr. Yihune Lakew.