Data Cleaning Process for mHealth Log Data to Inform Health Worker Performance

Abstract

Log data, captured during use of mobile health (mHealth) applications by health providers, can play an important role in informing nature of user engagement with the application. The log data can also be employed in understanding health provider work patterns and performance. However, given that these logs are raw data, they require robust cleaning and curation if accurate conclusions are to be derived from analyzing them. This paper describes a systematic data cleaning process for mHealth-derived logs based on Broeck’s framework, which involves iterative screening, diagnosis, and treatment of the log data. For this study, log data from the demonstrative mUzima mHealth application are used. The employed data cleaning process uncovered data inconsistencies, duplicate logs, missing data within logs that required imputation, among other issues. After the data cleaning process, only 39,229 log records out of the initial 91,432 usage logs (42.9%) could be included in the final dataset suitable for analyses of health provider work patterns. This work highlights the significance of having a systematic data cleaning approach for log data to derive useful information on health provider work patterns and performance