en بهداشت Health پژوهشي Original Article <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Background and purpose</strong>: Surveillance is a system of continuing health checks, is considered&nbsp;as a critical part of public health practice for planning and implantation of effective prevention&nbsp;and control interventions for communicable diseases in the region. The aim of this study was to&nbsp;determine the effects of an active method of data collection on the improvement of these&nbsp;diseases surveillance.<br> <strong>Materials and Methods:</strong> This research was an interventional study that carried out from&nbsp;January 2011 to January 2013. We surveyed the number of reporting communicable diseases&nbsp;before and after this modification on collecting data in our region and compared them. We&nbsp;changed the method of data collection from passive to active by experts. The collected data&nbsp;analysis was performed by SPSS software using descriptive statistics and independent samples t-test.<br> <strong>Results</strong>: A total of 763 physicians enrolled, of whom 327 were employed in the health centers&nbsp;non-affiliated to the university. In the centers non-affiliated to the university, the mean&nbsp;reporting from these centers were 12.0 &plusmn; 8.7 [95% confidence interval (CI): 11.1-13.0] after the&nbsp;intervention, compared with 2.8 &plusmn; 3.7 (95% CI: 2.4-3.2) before the intervention. The mean&nbsp;reporting from affiliated centers did not change considerably after the intervention (11.7 &plusmn; 16.1&nbsp;vs. 12.1 &plusmn; 16.3). The mean reporting of both groups in 2012 was significantly different from&nbsp;that in 2011 (P < 0.001). But no difference was observed between mean reporting of two groups&nbsp;throughout 2012 (P = 0.998).<br> <strong>Conclusion</strong>: We recommend the active method for collecting data of communicable disease,&nbsp;especially from the physicians in centers non-affiliated to the university.&nbsp;</p> Communicable Diseases, Data Collection, Public Health Surveillance 52 58 http://jhs.mazums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-462-2&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Mohammad Moazeni-Bistgani 10031947532846004938 10031947532846004938 No Department Surgery, School of Medicine, Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences, Shahrekord, Iran Reza Imani 10031947532846004939 10031947532846004939 No Department of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, School of Medicine, Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences, Shahrekord, Iran Shahla Shahrjerdi sh.shahrjerdi@gmail.com 10031947532846004940 10031947532846004940 Yes Health Center, Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences, Shahrekord, Iran