A Comprehensive Assessment of Quality Management Methods in the SMESH Study

Background This paper aims to instigate discussion and publication of methodologies applied to enhance quality management through comprehensive scientific reports. It provides a detailed description of the design, implementation, and results of the quality control program employed in the SMESH study.Methods Cross-sectional, multicenter, national study designed to assess the prevalence of human papillomavirus in sex workers and in men who have sex with men (MSM). Respondent-driven sampling recruitment was used. An online system was developed for the study and checkpoints were defined for data entry. The system checked the quality of biological samples and performed a retest with part of the sample.Results A total of 1.598 participants (442 sex workers and 1.156 MSM) were included. Fifty-four health professionals were trained for face-to-face data collection. The retest showed Kappa values ranging between 0.3030 and 0.7663.Conclusion The retest data were mostly classified as indicating a strong association. The data generated by the checkpoints showed the successful implementation of the quality control program.