Research articleOpen accessVol. 14, Issue 7, June 2026
- Published
- 30 June 2026
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0
Abstract
— Rapid, complete, and accurate disease reporting is foundational to public health surveillance, particularly in settings with linguistic diversity and variable literacy. Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems offer a low-cost, device-agnostic channel for real-time reporting from frontline workers and communities, yet the comparative effectiveness of multilingual IVR versus single-language IVR remains underexplored. This manuscript evaluates the efficacy of a multilingual IVR intervention for notifiable disease reporting using a controlled before–after design across matched districts. We examine reporting rate, timeliness, data completeness, positive predictive value (PPV) of alerts, and cost per valid report. The intervention consisted of a DTMF-based IVR menu with professionally recorded prompts available in seven languages, automatic call-back for dropped calls, speech rate controls, and role-based branching logic. Over a 12-month period (6-month baseline; 6-month intervention), 164 facilities and community reporters (N≈2,480 active reporters) generated 48,326 reportable events. Multilevel difference-in-differences models, adjusted for clustering and seasonal trends, indicated that multilingual IVR increased the reporting rate per 100 suspected cases by 13 percentage points (pp) (95% CI: 8–18; p<.001), reduced median reporting delay by 13 hours (95% CI: −18 to −8; p<.001), improved field completeness by 10 pp (95% CI: 4–16; p=.002), and raised PPV by 5 pp (95% CI: 1–9; p=.03) compared with single-language IVR controls. Cost per valid report decreased by US$0.70 (95% CI: −1.26 to −0.14; p=.02). Qualitative debriefs attributed gains to language choice at call start, reduced cognitive load, and greater confidence among lower-literacy reporters. Findings suggest that multilingual IVR meaningfully enhances surveillance performance metrics and equity of participation, particularly in linguistically heterogeneous regions. Public health programs planning digital surveillance scale-up should prioritize multilingual voice channels alongside standards-based data integration and inclusive human-centered design.
Keywords: Interactive Voice Response, Multilingual Systems, Disease Surveillance, Public Health Reporting, mHealth, Equity, Timeliness, Completeness, Usability, Low-Resource Settings
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How to cite
Dr Raj Kumar Deshmukh (2026). Efficacy of Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Systems in Multiple Languages for Disease Reporting. International Journal of Research in All Subjects in Multi Languages, 14(7).
Licence
This article is open access, published under the CC BY 4.0 licence. Copyright remains with the authors.