Article Text
Abstract
Background Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh (CIPRB) is a leading research organisation in Bangladesh which works with different health related data since 2005. Since its inception, CIPRB developed over 25 different data bases mostly on injury prevention. CIPRB also managed surveillance databases with sample around 1,000,000. There are lots of challenges during data entry using hard copy data collection forms.
Objective The objective of the study was to describe the challenges those were faced during management of data entry in a low resource setting, Bangladesh.
Methodology Since 2005 Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh (CIPRB) has been implementing several research programs. CIPRB established a data entry centre in Dhaka with around 30 data enterers. Before starting data entry all hard copy questionnaires were collected and stored in a store room then the data enterers entered injury data manually in a software . The data entry process was closely monitored under the supervision of a statistician. On completion of entry each data-sets was cleaned for analysis.
Results Computers used for data entry were old versioned and unupgraded. Unstable power supply interrupted data entry process. Maintaining network and server system is expensive and time consuming. Frequent damage of the computer sometimes caused loss of entered data. Poor storage system also caused data loss. Missing and confusing unclear data delays entry process. Data entry became slower in the evening than in the morning time. Due to unavailability of spear computers sometimes data enterers needed to wait until fixation of the broken computer.
Conclusion A lot of challenges were identified, which were mostly due to financial constraints. These challenges are common in the low- and middle-income countries. During research funding donors should support to improve the data entry process which will eventually help to conduct better research.
Acknowledgement Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh (CIPRB)
- Data entry
- Data enterer
- Bangladesh
- Data management