Posted on Mar 31, 2022 at 17:54
The Institute of Public Opinion
and Research (IPOR) in conjunction with researchers from the Malawi
Epidemiology and Intervention Research Unit (MEIRU), New York University-Abu
Dhabi, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, is conducting a twelve-months
Rapid Mortality Mobile Phone Surveys-RAMMPS between December 2021 and December
2022.
According to the Field Manager
for RAMMPS Funny Muthema, the study aims at gathering data in settings where
mortality surveillance systems are weak or interrupted. Through this study, the
researchers will be assessing the impact of COVID-19 on mortality in the five
countries under study.
Muthema added that each month a
team of enumerators from IPOR will call and interview 1700 randomly selected
Malawians. Participants will be randomly selected men and women of ages between
18 and 64, whose telephone numbers have been randomly selected using the
sampling services of Sample Solutions Blv of the Netherlands. All cellphone
numbers in Malawi are eligible to be randomly selected and called through this
study.
“Selected respondents will be
asked to participate in a short interview which will take about 20 minutes.
Participation in the study is voluntary and there is no penalty for refusing to
take part. However, it is our belief that participating in the study will help
us better understand how COVID-19 has affected the lives of Malawians,
including experience of illness and deaths within households. We also
understand that remembering and discussing illness and deaths amongst relatives
may trigger feelings of sadness and emotional distress. If that happens, we
will make provision for respondents to talk to a licensed counsellor at no
costâ€, added Muthema.
IPOR’s ethical guidelines ensures
that information that we will collect during the interviews may be shared with
other researchers, but only after we delete name and telephone numbers so that
nobody can link the information to any respondents.
“Information of respondents will
be treated with utmost confidentiality. In addition, respondents will benefit
indirectly as data helps in policy, programs and project interventions
formulations. However, we will appreciate our respondents for their time in
participating in the survey with a token of airtimeâ€, says Muthema.
In addition to Malawi, this
project is also being run in four other countries, namely: Bangladesh, Burkina
Faso, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique.