Evaluation on data quality of severe acute respiratory infection sentinel surveillance system in China,2015-2016

Objective To understand the data quality of severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) sentinel surveillance system in China and provide evidence for the optimization of the system. Methods The data of SARI cases data from July 6th 2015 to July 10th 2016 were collected from the sentinel surveillance system. The completeness of registration information and questionnaire, accuracy of case inclusion and timeliness of case registration, specimen collection and transportation.Results A total of 11 091 SARI cases were reported. The completeness rates of registration information and questionnaire were 83.4% and 95.6%, respectively. Among the reported cases, 12.5% didn't meet the case definition, and the main reason was lack of cough symptoms (81.1%). The timeliness rates of cases registration, specimen collection and specimen transportation were 81.4%, 84.7% and 76.4%, respectively. Up to 99.6% of the cases were reported from the sentinel departments.Conclusion The data quality of China's SARI sentinel surveillance system was good, but some efforts are still needed to improve the completeness of registration information, accuracy of reported case and timeliness of specimen transportation. It is suggested to fill all the information items in the registration form, strengthen the professional training about case definition and find the reason for the low timeliness of specimen transportation.