PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Tilahun, Hibret AU - Abate, Biruk AU - Belay, Hiwot AU - Gebeyehu, Abebaw AU - Ahmed, Mohammed AU - Simanesew, Akiliu AU - Ayele, Wondimu AU - Mohammedsanni, Afrah AU - Knittel, Barbara AU - Wondarad, Yakob TI - Drivers and Barriers to Improved Data Quality and Data-Use Practices: An Interpretative Qualitative Study in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia AID - 10.9745/GHSP-D-21-00689 DP - 2022 Sep 15 TA - Global Health: Science and Practice PG - e2100689 VI - 10 IP - Supplement 1 4099 - http://www.ghspjournal.org/content/10/Supplement_1/e2100689.short 4100 - http://www.ghspjournal.org/content/10/Supplement_1/e2100689.full SO - GLOB HEALTH SCI PRACT2022 Sep 15; 10 AB - Key FindingsUsing the Connected Woreda strategy to assess health facilities’ status of data use, as well as capacity-building efforts and leadership engagement, was found to be useful for improved data quality and use.The use of performance management teams, which review data and monitor health facility performance, was the main driver in improving data quality and data-use practices at the health facilities.Infrastructure challenges and health workers’ negative attitudes and practices around data collection and use were barriers to data use.Key ImplicationsFuture investments to address health worker attitudes, human resource shortages, standardization of data registration tools, and infrastructure challenges, including district health information system version-2 system instability, are recommended.Continuing the commitment to the information revolution beyond the current health sector transformation plan period (2015–2020) is key to ensuring sustainability.Introduction:An objective of the Information Revolution Roadmap of Ethiopia’s Health Sector Transformation Plan was to improve health management information system (HMIS) data quality and data use at the point of health service delivery. We aimed to assess drivers of and barriers to improving HMIS data quality and use, focusing on key Information Revolution strategies including Connected Woreda, capacity building, performance monitoring teams, and motivational incentives.Methods:We conducted an interpretative qualitative study across all 11 health centers in 3 subcities of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: Yeka, Akaki-Kaliti, and Ledeta. A total of 40 key informant interviews and 6 focus group discussions with a total of 43 discussants were conducted. We coded information gathered line-by-line and grouped responses under thematic codes as they emerged. Findings were triangulated and validated.Results:Our findings indicate that the main drivers of data quality and use at the point of service delivery were the use of the Connected Woreda strategy and its tools, capacity-building activities including mentorship, performance monitoring-team activities that led to active leadership engagement, and motivational incentives for data producers and users. Barriers to optimal data-use practices were the use of duplicative data collection tools at health facilities, under-developed health information system infrastructure, inadequate health information technician staffing and capacity limitations at the health facility level, insufficient leadership commitment, and unfavorable health worker attitudes toward data.Discussion:Improvements in quality and use of HMIS data at health facilities are expected to result in delivering better-quality health services to the community as data enable health workers to identify gaps in health care, fix them, and monitor improvements. Future investments should focus on strengthening the promising data-use practices, resolving bottlenecks caused by duplicative data collection tools, enhancing individual and institutional capacity, addressing suboptimal health worker attitudes toward data, and overcoming infrastructure and connectivity challenges.