Examining the Development and Utilisation of Community-Based Health Information Systems (CBHISs) in Africa: A Scoping Review

The community health approach, a crucial aspect of primary health care (PHC), has been recognised as a fundamental step towards achieving universal health coverage (UHC) and Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG 3). The community health system (CHS), as the first level of the health system, is the most accessible, equitable, cost-effective, and efficient approach to improving access and coverage of health services. The CHS also serves as an excellent platform for generating data and conducting seasonal trend analyses on community morbidity, mortality, disease burden, and health needs, which can inform and enhance decision-making at the community level. Furthermore, community-level health data are essential for monitoring the performance of healthcare delivery, generating data for programme monitoring, planning, and evaluation, and tracking key UHC indicators and health-related SDGs. As a result, community-based health information systems (CBHIS) play a vital role in enhancing the availability, accessibility, quality, and use of community health data and strengthening the CHS. In an effort to strengthen health information systems at the community level, many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have initiated reforms and projects to enhance CBHIS. Therefore, this scoping review aims to map available evidence on the development and utilisation of CBHIS in Africa. Methods: This scoping review will use the Arksey and O’Malley’s Framework, utilising a comprehensive search strategy developed by a research librarian. Electronic databases to be searched include PubMed, EMBASE, HINARI, Cochrane Library, Google Scholar and hand searches in Google. We will also search grey literature on Open Grey, and snowballing will be employed to identify additional literature from references of included studies. We will limit our search to Africa and publications from 2000-2023. The results will be reported using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). Discussion: This scoping review will identify and synthesise evidence regarding CBHIS data generation, utilisation of CBHIS in decision-making, and community accessibility of CBHIS that could contribute to the functionality of the community health systems in Africa and other LMICs. We will disseminate the findings of this review through a publication in a peer-reviewed journal and presentations at scientific conferences.