Examining the spatio-temporal patterns of diarrhoeal disease incidence from routinely collected clinical data

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Diarrhoeal disease amongst children under five years of age is a significant public health issue in Kenya,and has previously been linked to geographic risk factors. Health facilities collect and generate data tosupport the delivery of routine patient care, and could therefore be a viable source of population-levelhealth intelligence to optimise and target interventions to those people and localities with greatest need.A better understanding of demand and utilisation at individual facilities could also reveal gaps incoverage and improve the overall efficiency of the health system.However, routine health data has historically been under-utilised in sub-Saharan Africa owing to concernsaround its completeness and accuracy. This study will evaluate the quality of the routine data generatedby health facilities in Kenya, and will develop methods to facilitate its use for analytical purposes. It willthen quantify the incidence of childhood diarrhoeal disease by health facility, describe the variationbetween facilities, and create statistical models describing the association with patient-level andgeographic risk factors.As real-world data will be used, this study could have immediate impact in Kenya if its recommendationsare adopted by health service managers, and prove useful in the development of interventions to reduceincidence and improve health outcomes of childhood diarrhoeal disease. Developing workingrelationships with study collaborators in Kenya could also help to build analytical capacity within thehealth service, and could contribute to a broader case for greater investment in systems facilitating therecording, storage and analysis of routine health data.