title: Health & Demographic Surveillance System Profile: The Ifakara Rural and Urban Health and Demographic Surveillance System (Ifakara HDSS).
abstract: The Ifakara Rural HDSS (125,000 people) was set up in 1996 for a trial of the effectiveness of social marketing of bed nets on morbidity and mortality of children aged under 5 years, whereas the Ifakara Urban HDSS (45,000 people) since 2007 has provided demographic indicators for a typical small urban centre setting. Jointly they form the Ifakara HDSS (IHDSS), located in the Kilombero valley in south-east Tanzania. Socio-demographic data are collected twice a year. Current malaria work focuses on phase IV studies for antimalarials and on determinants of fine-scale variation of pathogen transmission risk, to inform malaria elimination strategies. The IHDSS is also used to describe the epidemiology and health system aspects of maternal, neonatal and child health and for intervention trials at individual and health systems levels. More recently, IHDSS researchers have studied epidemiology, health-seeking and national programme effectiveness for chronic health problems of adults and older people, including for HIV, tuberculosis and non-communicable diseases. A focus on understanding vulnerability and designing methods to enhance equity in access to services are cross-cutting themes in our work. Unrestricted access to core IHDSS data is in preparation, through INDEPTH iSHARE [www.indepth-ishare.org] and the IHI data portal [http://data.ihi.or.tz/index.php/catalog/central].
authors.affiliation: Ifakara Health Institute, Mikocheni, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, INDEPTH Network, Kanda, Accra, Ghana, ALPHA Network, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK, egeubbels@ihi.or.tz.
authors.forename: Eveline
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Geubbels
authors.affiliation: INDEPTH Network, Kanda, Accra, Ghana, Ifakara Health Institute, Ifakara Branch, Morogoro Region, Tanzania and.
authors.forename: Shamte
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Amri
authors.affiliation: Ifakara Health Institute, Mikocheni, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, ALPHA Network, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK, Ifakara Health Institute, Ifakara Branch, Morogoro Region, Tanzania and.
authors.forename: Francis
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Levira
authors.affiliation: Department of Disease Control and Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
authors.forename: Joanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schellenberg
authors.affiliation: Ifakara Health Institute, Mikocheni, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, INDEPTH Network, Kanda, Accra, Ghana.
authors.forename: Honorati
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Masanja
authors.affiliation: Ifakara Health Institute, Mikocheni, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, INDEPTH Network, Kanda, Accra, Ghana.
authors.forename: Rose
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nathan
mesh_terms: D000962:Antimalarials / Q000627:therapeutic use; D046688:Child Mortality / Q000639:trends*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000453:epidemiology*; D017327:Clinical Trials, Phase IV as Topic; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods; D003710:Demography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008288:Malaria / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D009017:Morbidity; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods*; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012423:Rural Health; D012424:Rural Population; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013636:Tanzania / Q000453:epidemiology; D014504:Urban Health
chemical_list: D000962:Antimalarials