An assessment of the effects of behavioural factors (competence, confidence, and motivation) and technical abilities of health professionals on the performance of health information systems: A case study in Kenya.

Abstract

 The primary objective of a health information system is to scale up the effectiveness of services by
ascertaining that health managers and service providers use health data to make informed decisions.
Human behaviour largely affects the produced by the Routine Health Information Systems (RHIS).
This research aimed to assess howhuman behavioural factors:competence, confidence, motivation, and
the technical abilities: knowledge of routine health information systems rationale, data quality checking skills,
and problem-solving skills of District Health Information System (DHIS) staff affected the health system
performance.
The cross-sectional design was used to collect data from Bomet county, Kenya. Descriptive statistic was
used to analyze the data using percentages, frequencies, mean and median. The Chi-square test was used to
test the population variance. T-test and F-test were used to explore the differences in mean for the different
variables. Cross tabulation was used to examinethe performance of participants on the competency test.
Confirmatory factor analysis was used to reduce the number of variables. Thelinear regression analysis
showed that years of service could predict the ability of staff to provide feedback, competence to execute tasks,
confidence to perform the duties.

Out of 223 questionnaires distributed, 209 were correctly completed and returned, giving the research a 94%
response rate. Most participants were nurses (40%). Majority of the participants were between 30-40 years
(48.5%). Diploma holders constituted 75.12%. Untrained staffon RHIS constituted 89.95%. The overall level
of knowledge of the study participants was analyzed using the sum score of each outcome based on Bloom's
cut-off point.Trained staff were more competent than untrained staff (p = .000). Respondentsrated themselves
at above 70% inthe performance of RHIS tasks. There was astrong correlation between competence and
confidence (correlation coefficient = 0.893, p < 0.001). Trained staff were more knowledge able than untrained
staff (p = .000), and they also had better data quality checking skills (p = .001). 20-30 years old staff were more
competent in problem-solving processes than those above 41 yearsof age.
The county government should encourage the training of trainers to speed up staff trainingon effective
collection of data and use of data to make informed decisions. Staff involvement through regular meetings
should occur to ensure information sharing and resolution of any out standing operational challenges.