mHealth in the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases in India: Current Possibilities and the Way Forward

Majumdar, Anindo; Kar, Sitanshu Sekhar; Gk, Sharma; Chinnakali, Palanivel; Misra, Puneet

doi:10.7860/jcdr/2015/11555.5573

Cited by 26 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Mobile health or mHealth, defined by the global observatory for eHealth as “medical and public health practice supported by mobile devices, such as mobile phones, patient monitoring devices, personal digital assistants, and other wireless devices” is increasingly being used to support NCD care delivery [ 5 ]. Potential advantages include reducing response time by using trained nonphysician health workers, providing decision support, minimizing variability in the quality of delivered care, and optimizing monitoring and patient engagement, eventually reducing the cost of care and improving outcomes [ 6 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A number of initiatives that use mobile devices for delivering health care are currently being developed and implemented in India [ 6 - 9 ]. Given the considerable financial and human resources being invested in planning, development, and implementation of these initiatives, it is critical to ascertain their role in strengthening health care systems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Current Status and Future Directions of mHealth Interventions for Health System Strengthening in India: Systematic Review

Bassi¹,

John²,

Praveen³

et al. 2018

JMIR Mhealth Uhealth

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BackgroundWith the exponential increase in mobile phone users in India, a large number of public health initiatives are leveraging information technology and mobile devices for health care delivery. Given the considerable financial and human resources being invested in these initiatives, it is important to ascertain their role in strengthening health care systems.ObjectiveWe undertook this review to identify the published mobile health (mHealth) or telemedicine initiatives in India in terms of their current role in health systems strengthening. The review classifies these initiatives based on the disease areas, geographical distribution, and target users and assesses the quality of the available literature.MethodsA search of the literature was done to identify mHealth or telemedicine articles published between January 1997 and June 2017 from India. The electronic bibliographic databases and registries searched included MEDLINE, EMBASE, Joanna Briggs Institute Database, and Clinical Trial Registry of India. The World Health Organization health system building block framework was used to categorize the published initiatives as per their role in the health system. Quality assessment of the selected articles was done using the Cochrane risk of bias assessment and National Institutes of Health, US tools.ResultsThe combined search strategies yielded 2150 citations out of which 318 articles were included (primary research articles=125; reviews and system architectural, case studies, and opinion articles=193). A sharp increase was seen after 2012, driven primarily by noncommunicable disease–focused articles. Majority of the primary studies had their sites in the south Indian states, with no published articles from Jammu and Kashmir and north-eastern parts of India. Service delivery was the primary focus of 57.6% (72/125) of the selected articles. A majority of these articles had their focus on 1 (36.0%, 45/125) or 2 (45.6%, 57/125) domains of health system, most frequently service delivery and health workforce. Initiatives commonly used client education as a tool for improving the health system. More than 91.2% (114/125) of the studies, which lacked a sample size justification, had used convenience sampling. Methodological rigor of the selected trials (n=11) was assessed to be poor as majority of the studies had a high risk for bias in at least 2 categories.ConclusionsIn conclusion, mHealth initiatives are being increasingly tested to improve health care delivery in India. Our review highlights the poor quality of the current evidence base and an urgent need for focused research aimed at generating high-quality evidence on the efficacy, user acceptability, and cost-effectiveness of mHealth interventions aimed toward health systems strengthening. A pragmatic approach would be to include an implementation research component into the existing and proposed digital health initiatives to support the generation of evidence for health systems strengthening on strategically important outcomes.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Current Status and Future Directions of mHealth Interventions for Health System Strengthening in India: Systematic Review

Bassi¹,

John²,

Praveen³

et al. 2018

JMIR Mhealth Uhealth

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Collecting health data (8)(9)(10), increasing access to health knowledge (11)(12)(13)(14), promoting provider quality (15)(16)(17), and increasing medication/appointment adherence (18)(19)(20) are a few ways in which mobile phones have successfully been used in developing countries to support health. In addition, rigorous evaluations have demonstrated mobile phone messages to be successful in supporting preventative healthcare (8,14,18,21,22) such as chronic disease prevention in Seychelles (23). Findings also support the transfer of face-to-face health behavior change technologies unto mobile phones in developed countries (24).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mobile phone use among female entertainment workers in Cambodia: an observation study

Brody¹,

Tatomir²,

Tuot³

et al. 2017

mHealth

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Background: Text or voice messages containing health behavior change content may be an inexpensive, discreet, sustainable and scalable way to reach populations at high risk for HIV. In Cambodia, one of the important high-risk populations is female entertainment workers (FEWs). This ethnographic study aims to explore typical phone use, examining patterns and behaviors that may influence the design of future mHealth interventions. Methods:The study consisted of one 8-hour non-participant observation session for 15 randomly sampled Results: In this ethnographic study, all 15 participants made calls, checked the time and received researchrelated texts. More than half (n=8) of the participants engaged in texting to a non-research recipient. About half (n=7) went on Facebook (FB) and some (n=5) listened to music and looked at their FB newsfeed. Fewer played a mobile game, posted a photo to FB, went on YouTube, used FB chat/messenger, watched a video on FB, played a game on FB, used FB call/voice chat, looked at their phone's background or used the LINE app. Fewer still shared their phones, left them unattended, added airtime or changed their SIM cards.When participants received a research text message, most did not share the text message with anyone, did not ask for help deciphering the message and did not receive help composing a response. Notable themes from observer notes, HIV outreach workers and researchers include reasons why phone calls were the most frequent mode of communication, examples of how cell phone company text messages are used as a form of behavior change, literacy as a persistent barrier for some FEWs, and FEWs' high interest in receiving health-related messages and less concern about privacy and phone-sharing issues than expected.Conclusions: This study suggests texting is a part of normal phone use although not as frequently used as voice calls or Facebook. Despite the less frequent use, FEWs were able to send and receive messages, were interested in health messages and were not overly concerned about privacy issues. Texting and voice messaging may be useful tools for health behavior change within the FEW population in Cambodia.

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“…Mobile health technology has been used effectively for health care delivery in many developing countries. In India, researchers have built some systems that have been used in infectious disease and noncommunicable disease data collection in which they have proven that mobile health has many advantages, including low cost, convenience, and ease 8 . In South Africa and Peru, a study showed that using a PDA for data collection can not only save cost but also improve efficiency 9 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In India, researchers have built some systems that have been used in infectious disease and noncommunicable disease data collection in which they have proven that mobile health has many advantages, including low cost, convenience, and ease. 8 In South Africa and Peru, a study showed that using a PDA for data collection can not only save cost but also improve efficiency. 9 Tanzania has carried out a massive information collection and investigation using PDAs, collecting more than 80,000 cases over 7 weeks and completing a summary and setting up a database within 24 hours.…”

Section: Infectious Disease Information Collection Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infectious Disease Information Collection System at the Scene of Disaster Relief Based on a Personal Digital Assistant

Gao

Fan

et al. 2016

Disaster med. public health prep.

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mHealth in the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases in India: Current Possibilities and the Way Forward

Cited by 26 publications

References 20 publications

Current Status and Future Directions of mHealth Interventions for Health System Strengthening in India: Systematic Review

Current Status and Future Directions of mHealth Interventions for Health System Strengthening in India: Systematic Review

Mobile phone use among female entertainment workers in Cambodia: an observation study

Infectious Disease Information Collection System at the Scene of Disaster Relief Based on a Personal Digital Assistant

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