Wired Mothers - Use of Mobile Phones to Improve Maternal and Neonatal Health in Zanzibar

University of Copenhagen

Status: Completed

Conditions: Newborn Death; Health Behavior; mHealth; Maternal Health; Pregnancy

Treatments: Device: Wired mothers

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01821222

09-086KU

Details and patient eligibility

About

Reducing maternal and newborn mortality remains a global challenge. Because obstetric complications cannot be predicted, skilled attendance at the time of delivery and access to emergency obstetric care remain the most effective strategies to reduce mortality. Antenatal care has the potential to reduce maternal morbidity and improve newborns survival but this benefit may not be realized in sub-Saharan Africa where the attendance and quality of care is declining. There is a rapidly expanding number of mobile phone users in developing countries and due to the potential to strengthen health system the use of mobile phones is health care is emerging. The investigators assessed a mobile phone intervention named "wired mothers" aimed to improve maternal and newborn health.

The hypothesis of the study was that the wired mothers mobile phone intervention would increase attendance to essential reproductive health services such as antenatal care and skilled delivery attendance and reduce severe adverse pregnancy outcomes for women and newborn.

The objective of the study was to examine the effect of the wired mothers intervention on antenatal care, skilled delivery attendance, access to emergency obstetric care and perinatal mortality.

The study was a pragmatic cluster randomized controlled trial with the primary health care facility as the unit of randomization. The study took place in 2009-2010 on the island of Unguja in Zanzibar. 2550 pregnant women who attended antenatal care at one of 24 selected facilities were included at their first visit and followed until 42 days after delivery. Facilities were allocated by simple randomization to either mobile phone intervention (n=12) or standard care (n=12). The intervention consisted of a SMS and mobile phone voucher component.

The perspectives of the study are that mobile phones may contribute to saving the lives of women and their newborns and achievement of MDGs 4 and 5. Evidence is needed to guide maternal and child health policy makers in developing countries.

Enrollment: 2,550 patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 14 to 45 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Pregnant women attending antenatal care at one of 24 selected primary healthcare facilities

Exclusion criteria

• Missing end-of-study questionnaire

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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2,550 participants in 2 patient groups

Wired mothers intervention

Experimental group

Description:

The wired mothers' intervention consisted of two components: an automated short messaging service (SMS) system providing wired mothers with unidirectional text messaging and a mobile phone voucher system providing the possibility of direct two-way communication between wired mothers and their primary health care providers. While only women with registered phone numbers received text messages, all women in the intervention group were given mobile phone vouchers to contact their local primary health care provider.

Treatment:

Device: Wired mothers

Control

No Intervention group

Description:

The control group received standard care