# A comprehensive assessment of quality management methods in the SMESH study

## TL;DR

This paper describes a quality control program used in the SMESH study to assess HPV prevalence in sex workers and MSM.

## Contribution

The study presents a detailed quality management approach using checkpoints and retests in a large-scale public health study.

## Key findings

- The study included 1,598 participants using respondent-driven sampling.
- Retests showed Kappa values between 0.3030 and 0.7663, indicating strong to moderate agreement.
- The quality control program was successfully implemented based on checkpoint data.

## Abstract

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.

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.

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.

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.