Background: Missing data in patient’s charts has negative impact on clients and health service management and on research that uses secondary data, especially in the context of increased need for evidence. This study aims to report on the rate of missing information in charts of patients on Antiretroviral Treatment (ART) and how it has been handled in a retrospective cross-sectional study done in the West Region of Cameroon.
Methods: It was a cross-sectional study. Patient’s charts of clients initiated on ART from October 2019 to September 2020 in 25 high volume ART clinics in the West Region of Cameroon were reviewed and 41 purposively sampled variables were reviewed to determine the completeness rate. Descriptive analysis was done by estimating rate of missing information on 41 purposively selected variables. The two-way ANOVA was conducted to examine the effect of facility volume and facility sector on the mean of data missing rate.
Results: A total of 2,735 medical charts were reviewed. The overall missing rate was 10.9% (SD: 14.3%) and 36.1% (SD: 31.9%) respectively in adults’ and infants’ charts. The missing rate was high in public Health facilities (HFs) compare to private health facilities (12.7% vs 9.0%; p < .0001). In the private HFs, the missing rate was significantly high in the high-volume HFs compare to the low volume HFs (14.1% vs 6.5%; p < .0001).
Conclusions: The patients’ chart missing rate was high in the in the West Region of Cameroon, specifically in public and high-volume HFs. Interventions should be designed and implemented to reduce the level of missing data in charts; which will have a positive impact on patient’s health and services management and on the quality of the results generated by studies that use medical records as data source.