Abstract:

Objective To evaluate the application effect of WeChat referral and WeChat follow-up functional modules of the “Mobile Phone Integrated Management System for Tuberculosis Prevention and Control” in Huizhou, and provide a basis for perfecting the system. Methods The lists of tuberculosis reporting units, suspicious tuberculosis patients and patients receiving treatment management in the “Tuberculosis Management Information System” of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention from 2016 to 2019 were collected, and then compared with the information of “Mobile Phone Integrated Management System for Tuberculosis Prevention and Control” to analyze the usage of institutions and patients. After the application of the WeChat referral and follow-up function, the 3883 suspicious patients referred by WeChat and 1960 patients followed by WeChat in 2018-2019 were served as the observation group, and the 12133 suspicious patients and 5643 patients before the application in 2016-2017 were used as the control group, and then the indicators of the patients between the two groups, including the number of referrals received, the number of follow-ups, the total number of patients in place, the number of patients who completed treatment, the number of lost patients, and the number of successful treatments, were compared and analyzed. The χ² test was used for the comparison of various rates, and P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results (1) From 2018 to 2019, 41.5% (3883/9364) of suspected patients and 70.1% (96/137) of tuberculosis reporting agencies used WeChat referrals; 52.7% (1960/3722) of confirmed patients, and 100.0% (101/101) of tuberculosis designated medical institutions and primary medical and health institution used WeChat follow-up. (2) The referral rate of suspicious pulmonary tuberculosis patients in the observation group (100.0% (3883/3883)) was higher than that in the control group (62.8% (7614/12133)), with the statistically significant difference (χ²=2014.70, P<0.01); the tracking rate reached 100.0% (2077/2077) in the observation group, which was higher than that in the control group (99.1% (7519/7584)) (χ²=17.92, P<0.01); and the in-place rate in the observation group was higher than that in the control group (85.5% (3320/3883) vs 82.0% (9951/12133), χ²=25.16, P<0.01). (3) The loss rate of pulmonary tuberculosis patients in the observation group was lower than that in the control group (0.4% (7/1573) vs 1.8% (104/5643), χ²=15.87, P<0.01). Conclusion The application of WeChat referral and follow-up improved the referral rate, follow-up rate and in-place rate of suspicious tuberculosis patients, as well as reduced the loss rate of patients included in treatment management, and achieved good application results.

Key words: Tuberculosis, Management information systems, Cellular phone, Patient transfer, Patient care management, Data interpretation, statistics