Clinical trial NCT05505760: Testing Content Delivery Models for MomConnect
Official title: Testing the Effectiveness of Quality-Based WhatsApp Messaging on Vaccine Hesitancy and Childhood Immunization in a National Maternal Messaging Program
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: RECRUITING
Phase: NA
Conditions: Immunization Coverage
Breastfeeding
Hematological Diseases
Lead sponsor: IDinsight
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Reach Digital Health (formerly Praekelt.org)
First posted: 2022-08-18
Enrollment: 8867
Sex: FEMALE
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Brief summary: The case for mobile health (mHealth) has been gaining traction as a source to improve health outcomes of individuals. mHealth refers to the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to support health care. The ubiquity and penetration of mobile phones presents the opportunity to deliver health care services directly to citizens, with the greatest potential gains in under-resourced health ecosystems. Operating for 8 years and currently supporting 1.28 million mothers through their pregnancies and early childhood care, MomConnect represents one of the largest maternal health messaging platforms in the world. Implemented at the national level, MomConnect has been credited with being the first national-scale mHealth program of its kind and has won numerous international awards. As a WhatsApp-delivered service, MomConnect has been limited by WhatsApp's historical terms of service. In its current form, MomConnect can only start a conversation with mothers once a week by alerting them of their upcoming antenatal care (ANC) appointment. Recent changes to WhatsApp's terms of service have removed the restriction around push messages for certain programs, including MomConnect. Messages have historically been restricted to weekly conversation starters and carry only generic administrative reminder-style information. As a result, it is possible that many mothers are failing to engage with the content as much as they could. If mothers were more engaged, it could greatly increase exposure and knowledge of reducing the total number of mothers exposed to critical maternal and infant health content. With the updated terms of service, there is an opportunity to test different ways of engaging mothers. This study proposes to evaluate, through a randomized controlled trial (RCT), the relative effect of three new behaviorally-informed program models on key knowledge of and adoption of healthy behaviors.


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Pregnant women above the age of 18 signing up for MomConnect when being between 16-30 weeks pregnant

Exclusion Criteria:

* All others

Primary outcomes:
measure: ANC visits
timeFrame: Based on phone survey conducted 7 weeks after expected delivery
measure: Immunisation coverage
timeFrame: Based on phone survey conducted 7 weeks after expected delivery
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Knowledge/Attitude Index
timeFrame: Based on phone survey conducted 7 weeks after expected delivery
measure: Behaviour Index
timeFrame: Based on phone survey conducted 7 weeks after expected delivery
measure: User Experience
timeFrame: Backend data is collected throughout users' usage of the platform; survey data based on phone survey conducted 7 weeks after expected delivery
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Cape Town
country: South Africa
facility: Reach Digital Health (formerly Praekelt.org)
Study officials:
References: