Abstract
Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic is a public health issue of historic and global
importance. As part of its broader pandemic strategy, the University of Otago initiated COVID-19 surveillance among students in Dunedin.
Aim: The study aim was to evaluate the University of Otago’s COVID-19 Student Surveillance
Activities (Dunedin Campus) and
Outcome: to provide recommendations for the continuation and modification of COVID-19
surveillance at the University of Otago, Dunedin.
Methods: The US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Updated Guidelines for
Evaluating Public Health Surveillance System was used to evaluate the University of Otago’s
COVID-19 Student Surveillance Activities during 2020, which consists of the AskOtago
COVID-19 Outbound Calls and the Residential College Daily Illness Logs. The performance of
the systems was evaluated using nine surveillance attributes: simplicity, flexibility, acceptability,
stability, data quality, sensitivity, representativeness, and timeliness. For each attribute, specific
indicators were developed and described using a mixed-methods approach; this included three
components: 1) review of the surveillance programme documents and data; 2) online student
questionnaires, and; 3) semi-structured key informant interviews.
Results & Conclusion: The AskOtago COVID-19 Outbound Calls and the Residential College
Daily Illness Logs are simple and flexible. However, both surveillance activities can be
optimised to improve the acceptability, stability, data quality, sensitivity and representativeness.