Wiefels A. auteur aut IRD Wolfarth-Couto B. auteur aut IRD Filizola N. auteur aut IRD Durieux Laurent auteur aut IRD Mangeas Morgan auteur aut IRD text journalArticle eng text/pdf born digital access The Epidemiological Surveillance System for Malaria (SIVEP-Malaria) is the Brazilian governmental program that registers all information about compulsory reporting of detected cases of malaria by all medical units and medical practitioners. The objective of this study is to point out the, main sources of errors in the SIVEP-Malaria database by applying a data cleaning method to assist researchers about the best way to use it and to report the problems to authorities. The aim of this study was to assess the quality of the data collected by the surveillance system and its accuracy. The SIVEP-Malaria data base used was for the state of Amazonas, Brazil, with data collected from 2003 to 2014. A data cleaning method was applied to the database to detect and remove erroneous records. It was observed that the collecting procedure of the database is not homogeneous among the municipalities and over the years. Some of the variables had different data collection periods, missing data, outliers and inconsistencies. Variables depending on the health agents showed a good quality but those that rely on patients were often inaccurate. We showed that a punctilious preprocessing is needed to produce statistically correct data from the SIVEP-Malaria data base. Fine spatial scale and multi-temporal analysis are of particular concern due to the local concentration of uncertainties and the data collecting seasonality observed. This assessment should help to enhance the quality of studies and the monitoring of the use of the SIVEP database. specialized Erroneous data Database Health surveillance BRESIL AMAZONAS 052 050 46 4 383-390 2016 0044-5967 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010067771 10.1590/1809-4392201600285 0044-5967 [F B010067771] https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010067771 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/intranet/publi/2016/09/010067771.pdf Accès réservé (Intranet de l'IRD) IRD - Base Horizon / Pleins textes 2016-09-30 2017-08-23 fdi:010067771 fre