SMS versus voice messaging to deliver MNCH communication in rural Malawi: assessment of delivery success and user experience

Crawford, Jessica; Larsen-Cooper, Erin; Jezman, Zachariah; Cunningham, Stacey C; Bancroft, Emily

doi:10.9745/ghsp-d-13-00155

Cited by 69 publications

(78 citation statements)

References 13 publications

(13 reference statements)

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“…3 Two of the seven studies examining antenatal care attendance were RCTs. Both studies used text message reminders and education for pregnant women and one also provided the women with mobilephone vouchers to contact their health worker, if needed.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2 Despite ongoing efforts to improve maternal and child health in developing countries, mortality rates remain much higher than in developed countries. 3 Women in developing regions face a lifetime risk of maternal death of 1 in 160, as compared with 1 in 3700 for women living in developed regions. 4 These inequalities are driven by many causes, one of which is limited access to preventive services.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Use of mobile phone for improvement in maternal health: a randomized control trial

Bangal

Borawake

Gavhane

et al. 2017

Int J Reprod Contracept Obstet Gynecol

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INTRODUCTIONThe essential components of antenatal care are screening of pregnant women for high risk factors, performing essential laboratory investigations and provision of advice regarding personal hygiene, nutrition, immunization and regular follow up visits. Literature review suggests that women with regular antenatal visits have better pregnancy outcome than their counterparts. 1The reported percentage of antenatal care coverage in India by UNICEF was 37% for four visits and 74% for at least a single visit (2014), institutional delivery rate of 47% and delivery by trained person was 52%.2 Despite ongoing efforts to improve maternal and child health in developing countries, mortality rates remain much higher than in developed countries.3 Women in developing ABSTRACTBackground: The rapid escalation of cellular network coverage and expansion of mobile phone usage has opened up a new way of deploying health services. The mobile app with message facilities help in imparting health education regarding nutrition, iron and folic acid prophylaxis, tetanus toxoid immunization, danger symptoms and signs during pregnancy etc. Present study aimed to improve maternal health and pregnancy outcome by optimum utilization of antenatal, natal and postnatal care services, with the use of mobile phone as a medium of communication between health care provider and community in rural area. Methods:The prospective randomized control study, with two hundred pregnant women each, coming for antenatal visit and having personal mobile phone facility, were randomly allocated to control and intervention group. Control group women received routine antenatal care and advice as per hospital protocol. In addition to routine care and advice, intervention group received mobile phone calls, as reminders about next visit and text messages (SMS) on important aspects of antenatal care at regular intervals. The primary outcome indicators of the study were percentage of pregnant women coming for at least four antenatal visits, percentage of institutional delivery and postnatal checkups. Results: Women in the intervention group had significantly higher number of antenatal visits, consumption of iron tablets, tetanus toxoid immunization, institutional deliveries and postnatal check-ups as compared to the control group. Conclusions: In the present study, the mobile phone intervention, significantly increased the percentage of women receiving the recommended four antenatal visits and showed a trend towards more women receiving preventive health services. Study gathered good evidence that m-Health tools present an opportunity to influence behaviour change and ensure that women access prevention services, including antenatal, natal and postnatal care. Mobile technology, specifically SMS can be successfully used to extend health information services to pregnant women.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Use of mobile phone for improvement in maternal health: a randomized control trial

Bangal

Borawake

Gavhane

et al. 2017

Int J Reprod Contracept Obstet Gynecol

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“…mHealth, or mobile health, projects have shown to be increasingly successful in developing countries. 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).…”

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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“…They answered the questions, offered health advice for handling minor complaints, provided information on when and where to seek care for symptoms or danger signs that could not be managed safely at home, and followed up after three to five days to check clients' adherence to the advice. The hotline system was available every day from 7am to 7pm local time (Crawford et al 2014). …”

Section: The Interventionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Little is known on the effectiveness of mHealth interventions for child health care in Malawi, or their potential as tools to support the management of childhood illnesses at both the community and health facility levels. (Crawford et al 2014). Community volunteers, trained and provided with phones, conducted community mobilization in the intervention sites and facilitated access to services to those without phones (IKI 2013).…”

Section: Potentials Of Mhealth To Strengthen the Continuum Of Home-tomentioning

confidence: 99%

Strengthening the home-to-facility continuum of newborn and child health care through mHealth: Evidence from an intervention in rural Malawi

Fotso¹,

Bellhouse²,

Vesel

et al. 2015

APS

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SMS versus voice messaging to deliver MNCH communication in rural Malawi: assessment of delivery success and user experience

Abstract: Mobile SMS health messages had higher successful delivery and led to higher intended or actual behavior change among subscribers than voice messages. Providing multiple delivery modalities led to greater overall access.

Cited by 69 publications

References 13 publications

Use of mobile phone for improvement in maternal health: a randomized control trial

Use of mobile phone for improvement in maternal health: a randomized control trial

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

Strengthening the home-to-facility continuum of newborn and child health care through mHealth: Evidence from an intervention in rural Malawi

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