OBJECTIVES: Currently, there is no comprehensive picture of the global surveillance landscape. This survey examines the current state of surveillance systems, levels of integration, barriers and opportunities for the integration of surveillance systems at the country level, and the role of national public health institutes (NPHIs). STUDY DESIGN: This was a cross-sectional survey of NPHIs. METHODS: A web-based survey questionnaire was disseminated to 110 NPHIs in 95 countries between July and August 2022. Data were descriptively analysed, stratified by World Health Organization region, World Bank Income Group, and self-reported Integrated Disease Surveillance (IDS) maturity status. RESULTS: Sixty-five NPHIs responded. Systems exist to monitor notifiable diseases and vaccination coverage, but less so for private, pharmaceutical, and food safety sectors. While Ministries of Health usually lead surveillance, in many countries, NPHIs are also involved. Most countries report having partially developed IDS. Surveillance data are frequently inaccessible to the lead public health agency and seldomly integrated into a national public health surveillance system. Common challenges to establishing IDS include information technology system issues, financial constraints, data sharing and ownership limitations, workforce capacity gaps, and data availability. CONCLUSIONS: Public health surveillance systems across the globe, although built on similar principles, are at different levels of maturity but face similar developmental challenges. Leadership, ownership and governance, supporting legal mandates and regulations, as well as adherence to mandates, and enforcement of regulations are critical components of effective surveillance. In many countries, NPHIs play a significant role in integrated disease surveillance.

BACKGROUND: The Global Nutrition Target of reducing low birthweight (LBW) by at least 30% between 2012 and 2025 has led to renewed interest in producing accurate, population-based, national low birthweight (LBW) estimates. Low- and middle-income countries rely on household surveys for birthweight data. These data are frequently incomplete and exhibit strong "heaping". Standard survey adjustment methods produce estimates with residual bias. The global database used to report against the LBW Global Nutrition Target adjusts survey data using a new MINORMIX approach: 1) multiple imputation to address missing birthweights, followed by 2) use of a two-component normal mixture model to account for heaping of birthweights. OBJECTIVE: We evaluated the performance of the MINORMIX birthweight adjustment approach and alternative methods against gold-standard measured birthweights in rural Nepal. DESIGN: As part of a community-randomized trial in rural Nepal, we measured "gold-standard" birthweights at birth and returned 1-24 months later to collect maternally reported birthweights using standard survey methods. We compared estimates of LBW from maternally reported data derived using: 1) the new MINORMAX approach; 2) the previously used Blanc-Wardlaw adjustment; 3) no adjustment for missingness or heaping against our gold-standard. We also assessed the independent contribution of multiple imputation and curve fitting to LBW adjustment. RESULTS: Our gold-standard found 27.7% of newborns were LBW. The unadjusted LBW estimate based on maternal report with simulated missing birthweights was 14.5% (95%CI: 11.6-18.0%). Application of the Blanc-Wardlaw adjustment increased the LBW estimate to 20.6%. The MINORMIX approach produced an estimate of 26.4% (95%CI: 23.5-29.3%) LBW, closest to and with bounds encompassing the measured point estimate. CONCLUSIONS: In a rural Nepal validation dataset, the MINORMIX method generated a more accurate LBW estimate than the previously applied adjustment method. This supports the use of the MINORMIX method to produce estimates for tracking the LBW Global Nutrition Target. Clinical Trial Registry: NCT01177111 at https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01177111.

BACKGROUND: The intrapartum period is a time of high mortality risk for newborns and mothers. Numerous interventions exist to minimize risk during this period. Data on intervention coverage are needed for health system improvement. Maternal report of intrapartum interventions through surveys is the primary source of coverage data, but they may be invalid or unreliable. METHODS: We assessed the reliability of maternal report of delivery and immediate newborn care for a sample of home and health facility births in Sarlahi, Nepal. Mothers were visited as soon as possible following delivery (< 72 h) and asked to report circumstances of labor and delivery. A subset was revisited 1-24 months after delivery and asked to recall interventions received using standard household survey questions. We assessed the reliability of each indicator by comparing what mothers reported immediately after delivery against what they reported at the follow-up survey. We assessed potential variation in reliability of maternal report by characteristics of the mother, birth event, or intervention prevalence. RESULTS: One thousand five hundred two mother/child pairs were included in the reliability study, with approximately half of births occurring at home. A higher proportion of women who delivered in facilities reported "don't know" when asked to recall specific interventions both initially and at follow-up. Most indicators had high observed percent agreement, but kappa values were below 0.4, indicating agreement was primarily due to chance. Only "received any injection during delivery" demonstrated high reliability among all births (kappa: 0.737). The reliability of maternal report was typically lower among women who delivered at a facility. There was no difference in reliability based on time since birth of the follow-up interview. We observed over-reporting of interventions at follow-up that were more common in the population and under-reporting of less common interventions. CONCLUSIONS: This study reinforces previous findings that mothers are unable to report reliably on many interventions within the peripartum period. Household surveys which rely on maternal report, therefore, may not be an appropriate method for collecting data on coverage of many interventions during the peripartum period. This is particularly true among facility births, where many interventions may occur without the mother's full knowledge.