JSANDS: A Stillbirth and Neonatal Deaths Surveillance System

Jordan lacks accurate registration system for reporting perinatal and neonatal (PNN) deaths, and their causes and social determinants, and therefore accurate measures and quality indicators are lacking. This study aimed to describe the development of an electronic stillbirths and neonatal deaths surveillance system (JSANDS) and asses the perception of potential users about the use of the system before its full implementation. JSANDS was developed as a secure on-line data entry system to collect, organize, analyse, and disseminate data on stillbirths, neonatal deaths and their causes. In addition to stillbirths and neonatal deaths, the system also registers births to use them as a denominator for mortality measures. JSANDS was tested by potential users in four maternity hospitals distributed over the three regions of the country. An online questionnaire was designed using google form and had been sent to a 50 potential users. The online questionnaire included the link and the password to access JSANDS. The respondents were requested to try JSANDS by entering hypothetical data and test it A total of 41 potential users responded and filled the questionnaire with a response rate of 91.1%. Of all respondents, the majority (85.2%) rated the language used in JSANDS as clear to very clear. Almost 61.0% reported that JSANDS is easy to be used and 26.8% reported that JSANDS is moderately easy to be used. The majority of respondents rated the user interface as easy to understand and the navigation through the system as easy. The vast majority rated the sequence of input data as somewhat clear to very clear (95.1%) and rated the screen design and color as good to excellent (83.0%). In conclusion, JSANDS is a valuable tool to completely register stillbirths and neonatal deaths and their causes. Potential users rated JSANDS attribute positively. JSANDS can be scaled-up to include data about maternal mortality and their causes, maternal morbidity, and other reproductive health problems.