Nirmala Murthy|Subhashini Chandrasekharan|Prakash Muthuperumal|Aakash Ganju|Joanne Peter|Nadi Nina Kaonga|Patricia Mechael
Effects of an mHealth voice message service (mMitra) on maternal health knowledge and practices of low-income women in India: findings from a pseudo-randomized controlled trial
Foundation for Research in Health Systems|Foundation for Research in Health Systems|Tufts University
mobile health mhealth becoming important tool improve health outcomes maternal newborn child health mnch studies mhealth interventions demonstrated effectiveness improving uptake recommended maternal services antenatal visits however evidence impact maternal health outcomes still limiteda pseudorandomized controlled trial single blind conducted assess impact voicemessage based maternal intervention maternal health knowledge attitudes practices outcomes time pregnancy baselinetime 1 postpartum time 2 infant turned one year old time 3 women assigned mmitra intervention arm received gestational age stagebased educational voice messages via mobile phone hindi marathi assigned control group groups received standard caretwo thousand sixteen women enrolled interviews conducted 1516 women intervention group 500 women control group baseline postpartum intervention group performed significantly better controls four maternal health practice indicators receiving tetanus toxoid injection 16 95 confidence interval ci 10524 p 0028 consulting doctor spotting bleeding 172 95ci 107275 p 0025 saving money delivery expenses 179 95ci 138233 p 00001 delivering hospital 25 95ci 149435 p 0001 control group performed significantly better intervention group two practice indicators resting regularly pregnancy 07 95ci 054088 p 0002 athome deliveries attended skilled birth attendant 046 95ci 023091 p 0027 groups knowledge improved time 1 time 2 one knowledge indicator seeking medical care pregnancy statistically increased intervention group compared controls anemia status near time delivery unable assessed due missing data maternal health cardsthis study provides evidence lowresource settings mobile voice messages providing tailored timed information pregnancy positively impact maternal health care practices proven improve maternal health outcomes additional research needed assess whether voice messaging motivate behavior change better text messaging particularly low literacy settingsthe mmitra impact evaluation registered isrctn registration 88968111 assigned 6 september 2018 see httpswwwisrctncomisrctn88968111