ICMR releases national guidelines for data quality in surveys

New Delhi: Professor Dr Vinod Kumar Paul, Member NITI Aayog, released the 'National Guidelines for Data Quality in Surveys' in ICMR in the presence of Secretary, Department of Health Research and Director General of ICMR, Prof (Dr.) Balram Bhargava.

The 'National Guidelines for Data Quality in Surveys' aims to provide comprehensive guiding principles and best practices for mitigating errors and biases that may occur during survey design, data collection and analysis, thereby ensuring data quality in surveys, specifically for demographic, health and nutrition surveys. 

The 'National Guidelines for Data Quality in Surveys' is an initiative of the National Data Quality Forum (NDQF), a multi-stakeholder, collaborative platform housed at the Indian Council of Medical Research-National Institute of Medical Statistics (ICMR-NIMS). The NDQF aims to guide advanced data quality monitoring, process audits and analytics, and capacity building of data collection agencies /producers to improve the quality of demographic, nutrition and health surveys.

Also Read:COVID: Covaxin single-dose to infected equivalent to 2 doses for unaffected, claims ICMR study

These guidelines will be useful for a wide range of audiences working on health and nutrition viz., government and private data producers and users, national and regional level policymakers, and technical staff at the ministries and organizations, besides academic, research institutions and survey agencies for planning, designing and execution of sample surveys. The guideline provides steps to be followed during the three critical phases of fieldbased studies (preparatory, during, and post data collection). The guideline also offers tips for applying different machine learning techniques in assessing the quality of surveys, tips on using technology, and essential checklists in following the operational procedures for ensuring data quality.

Prof. (Dr.) V K Paul, Member, NITI Aayog said, "National Guidelines for Data Quality in Surveys is a much-needed resource for all those undertaking demographic, health and nutrition surveys and will go a long way to improve quality of data collected in the country and elsewhere''

Prof. (Dr.) Balram Bhargava, Secretary, Department of Health Research & Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research said, "We are delighted to release this valuable document entitled National Guidelines for Data Quality in Surveys and confident that these guidelines will help adopt best practices for generating good quality nutrition and health survey data." 

Dr. M Vishnu Vardhana Rao, Director, ICMR-NIMS, said, "Many Governmental, as well as non-Governmental organizations, conduct a number of important surveys to collect data on health and nutrition status of citizens of India. These guidelines entitled National Guidelines for Data Quality in Surveys will be a useful resource for those who are involved in planning and execution of surveys and will help improve data quality and evidence-based decision-making."

Dr. Pronab Sen - Director, IGC India, New Delhi and Ex-Secretary, MoSPI and Chief Statistician of India, "I congratulate the National Data Quality Forum for publishing the National Guidelines for Data Quality in Surveys. It is the need of the hour as most decisions are now evidence-based and getting good quality data from the surveys is more important now than ever."

Dr Niranjan Saggurti, Director, Population Council, New Delhi, "National Guidelines for Data Quality in Surveys released today makes it a unique contribution in strengthening health data ecosystem in India. I am sure that the document will be adopted by many data-producing organizations/institutions to initiate the institutionalization process for ensuring data quality in surveys."

Also Read: COVID vaccines are not disease-preventing but disease-modifying: ICMR Chief