Retention of patient-held medical records for chronic diseases in Mozambique.

Introduction: Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) are becoming a public health problem in Mozambique and wider sub-Saharan Africa, and are driving changes to guaranty lifelong follow up of patients within the health systems. Patient-Held Medical Records (PHMR) are an option for this follow-up in under-resourced health systems. We designed a study to assess the rate of retention and quality of conservation of the PHMR.

Methods: we conducted a prospective observational study from November 2016 to October 2018 in a peri-urban hospital from in Mozambique. Consecutive newly diagnosed patients with cardiovascular disease were given PHMR. Data was collected after their first consultation and one year after. The retention and quality of conservation were assessed after 12 months.

Results: overall 134 PHMR were given to patients (24;17.9% children and 77;57.5% female), of which 121 (90.3%) retained at 12 months (90.9% in good conservation state). Most patients had on average four visits to health facilities during the study, all registered in the PHMR. Retention could not be confirmed in 13 patients who did not return the PHMR.

Conclusion: PHMR retention rates were high in an urban low-income setting in Africa, with high quality of conservation, thus supporting its use to replace hospital paper-based medical files. Specific research is recommended on acceptability, quality of information registered and patient´s perception.