Development of a Quality Assurance Score for the Nigeria AIDS Indicator and Impact Survey (NAIIS) Database: Validation Study

Hamisu M Salihu; Zenab Yusuf; Deepa Dongarwar; Sani H Aliyu; Rafeek A Yusuf; Muktar H Aliyu; Gambo Aliyu

doi:10.2196/25752

Development of a Quality Assurance Score for the Nigeria AIDS Indicator and Impact Survey (NAIIS) Database: Validation Study

JMIR Form Res. 2022 Jan 28;6(1):e25752. doi: 10.2196/25752.

Authors

Hamisu M Salihu^{1

2}, Zenab Yusuf³, Deepa Dongarwar^#¹, Sani H Aliyu⁴, Rafeek A Yusuf⁵, Muktar H Aliyu⁶, Gambo Aliyu⁷

Affiliations

¹ Center of Excellence in Health Equity, Training and Research, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States.
² Department of Family and Community Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States.
³ Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness and Safety, JP McGovern Campus, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States.
⁴ Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
⁵ Department of Management, Policy, and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX, United States.
⁶ Institute for Global Health, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, United States.
⁷ National Agency for the Control of AIDS, Abuja, Nigeria.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 35089143
PMCID: PMC8838544
DOI: 10.2196/25752

Abstract

Background: In 2018, Nigeria implemented the world's largest HIV survey, the Nigeria AIDS Indicator and Impact Survey (NAIIS), with the overarching goal of obtaining more reliable metrics regarding the national scope of HIV epidemic control in Nigeria.

Objective: This study aimed to (1) describe the processes involved in the development of a new database evaluation tool (Database Quality Assurance Score [dQAS]) and (2) assess the application of the dQAS in the evaluation and validation of the NAIIS database.

Methods: The dQAS tool was created using an online, electronic Delphi (e-Delphi) methodology with the assistance of expert review panelists. Thematic categories were developed to form superordinate categories that grouped themes together. Subordinate categories were then created that decomposed themes for more specificity. A validation score using dQAS was employed to assess the technical performance of the NAIIS database.

Results: The finalized dQAS tool was composed of 34 items, with a total score of 81. The tool had 2 sections: validation item section, which contains 5 subsections, and quality assessment score section, with a score of "1" for "Yes" to indicate that the performance measure item was present and "0" for "No" to indicate that the measure was absent. There were also additional scaling scores ranging from "0" to a maximum of "4" depending on the measure. The NAIIS database achieved 78 out of the maximum total score of 81, yielding an overall technical performance score of 96.3%, which placed it in the highest category denoted as "Exceptional."

Conclusions: This study showed the feasibility of remote internet-based collaboration for the development of dQAS-a tool to assess the validity of a locally created database infrastructure for a resource-limited setting. Using dQAS, the NAIIS database was found to be valid, reliable, and a valuable source of data for future population-based, HIV-related studies.

Keywords: Delphi method; Nigeria AIDS Indicator and Impact Survey; database quality assurance; quality assurance tool.

©Hamisu M Salihu, Zenab Yusuf, Deepa Dongarwar, Sani H Aliyu, Rafeek A Yusuf, Muktar H Aliyu, Gambo Aliyu. Originally published in JMIR Formative Research (https://formative.jmir.org), 28.01.2022.