Impact Evaluation of the Pilot SMS Mother Reminder System

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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The study aims to assess the effects of the SMS Mother Reminder system on use of health care in Uganda. A secondary aim of the study is to determine the behavioral factors and cost-effectiveness, as well as test the usability of the SMS Mother Reminder in Uganda.

Detailed Description
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USAID/Uganda is commissioning a prospective impact evaluation of the initial SMS component of Uganda's National Health Record Program (NHRP) in order to inform strategic targeting of eHealth and future investments after the pilot phase of the NHRP mobile platform SMS Mother Reminder. This impact evaluation will be designed to answer the following questions: Primary evaluation question: • What is the effect on maternal health outcomes (ANC4 and IPTP2) of the village health teams' use of the SMS Mother Reminder system? Secondary evaluation questions: What factors most influence changes in health workers, village health teams and expectant women's knowledge, attitudes and practices in maternal health? To what extent is using the SMS Mother Reminder application to track and inform pregnant women a cost-effective intervention from the perspectives of USAID? To what extent can users easily carry out specific tasks (e.g. entering the information of pregnant women) of the SMS Mother Reminder application on mobile devices? This study is funded by USAID through the African Strategies for Health project.

Official Title
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Impact Evaluation of the Pilot SMS Mother Reminder System

Conditions
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Effects of the SMS Mother Reminder System on Use of Health Care.

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: SMS reminder messages


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Pregnant Exclusion Criteria: -
Sexes Eligible for Study
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Female

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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No

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Prevention
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| No Intervention: Control<br>A control group of pregnant women receiving no intervention (i.e. no SMS reminders). | |
| Experimental: SMS reminder messages<br>The intervention group will be composed of pregnant women receiving SMS reminder messages via the SMS Mother Reminder system. | Behavioral: SMS reminder messages<br>* The study is prospective and interventional comparing differences between pregnant women who receive reminder messages via the SMS Mother Reminder system to those who are not. Pregnant women will be followed from their first ANC visit at a health facility through delivery. The study will examine the effect of the mobile phone intervention on attendance to ANC appointments and IPTP2 coverage. The intervention group will be composed of pregnant women receiving SMS reminder messages in comparison with a control group of pregnant women receiving no intervention (i.e. no SMS reminders).<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| ANC visits | Pregnant women attend 4 Antenatal care visits (ANC) | 1 year | 
| SP doses | Pregnant women receive at least 2 doses of intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy using sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP). | 1 year |