An mHealth Trial to Promote the Use of Postpartum Contraception (PPFP)

Junaid-ur-Rehman Siddiqui

Status: Unknown

Conditions: Contraception Behavior

Treatments: Behavioral: Interactive Phone Call; Behavioral: Text and Voice Messages

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03612518

009-17

Details and patient eligibility

About

Multiple encounters of pregnant women with the health care system during the late antenatal and immediate postpartum period provide a gateway for postpartum family planning counselling. Counselling on family planning services during this time is considered effective and cost-efficient for promoting healthy timing and spacing of pregnancies. This research aims to test the effectiveness of mobile phone-based interventions in promoting use of postpartum contraception.

Full description

The study will be a three-arm, 10-month, multicentre, parallel-group, randomized controlled trial which will be conducted at 15 Suraj social franchise(SF) health facilities in Punjab province of Pakistan. Pregnant women aged 15-44 years who are in their first or second trimester and have a mobile phone for their own use will be eligible to participate in this study. The participants will be randomly allocated to one of three study arms: a) voice and text messages; b) interactive telephone-based counselling; or c) control arm (no additional phone-based support). The intervention counselling module will be developed based on the Integrated Behaviour Model which was recently adapted, and tested for the family planning context in Pakistan. It will broadly cover birth-preparedness, birth spacing and contraception, and postnatal care. The phone-based intervention aims to improve women's ability to use contraception by providing them with information about a range of methods, access to family planning methods through outlets such as Suraj SF providers, connecting them with MSS field health educators to help them reach the centres, motivation by re-enforcing the benefits of contraceptive use on women's quality of life, and dispelling myths and misconceptions about modern contraceptive methods. Risk differences will be used as the measure of effect of the intervention on the outcomes.

Enrollment: 970 estimated patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 15 to 44 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Married
• Pregnant women with gestational age up to 20 weeks
• 15-44 years old throughout duration of study
• Literate
• Access to a cellphone
• Living in the study's catchment area

Exclusion criteria

• Not up to 20 weeks pregnant
• Not between 15-44 years old for the study duration
• Illiterate
• Does not have regular access to a cellphone
• Not residing within the catchment area
• Does not provide consent to participate

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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970 participants in 3 patient groups

Text and Voice Messages

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will receive text messages and voice messages

Treatment:

Behavioral: Text and Voice Messages

Interactive Phone Call

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will receive interactive phone calls

Treatment:

Behavioral: Interactive Phone Call

Control

No Intervention group

Description:

Participants in this arm will not be exposed to any intervention.