Suzan L. Carmichael|Kala M. Mehta|Sridhar Srikantiah|Tanmay Mahapatra|Indrajit Chaudhuri|Ramkrishnan Balakrishnan|Sharad Chaturvedi|Hina Raheel|Evan Borkum|S. P. Trehan|Yingjie Weng|Rajani Kaimal|Anitha Sivasankaran|Swetha Sridharan|Dana Rotz|Usha Kiran Tarigopula|Debarshi Bhattacharya|Yamini Atmavilas|Kevin T Pepper|Anu Rangarajan|Gary L. Darmstadt
Use of mobile technology by frontline health workers to promote reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health and nutrition: a cluster randomized controlled Trial in Bihar, India
Stanford University|Stanford University|Care India|Care India|Care India|Care India|Care India|Stanford University|Mathematica Policy Research|Mathematica Policy Research|Dr. Reddy's Foundation|Stanford University|Stanford University|Mathematica Policy Research|Mathematica Policy Research|Mathematica Policy Research|Stanford University|Mathematica Policy Research|Stanford University
use mobile technology frontline health workers promote reproductive maternal newborn child health nutrition cluster randomized controlled trial bihar india background mhealth technology holds promise improving effectiveness frontline health workers flws provide healthrelated primary care services especially reproductive maternal newborn child health nutrition services rmnchn lowresource especially hardtoreach settingsdata lacking however rigorous evaluations mhealth interventions delivery health services healthrelated behaviors outcomes methodsthe information communication technologycontinuum care service ictccs tool designed use communitybased flws increase coverage quality coordination services provide bihar indiait consisted numerous mobile phonebased job aids aimed improve key rmnchnrelated behaviors outcomesictccs implemented saharsa district cluster randomization health subcenter levelin total evaluation surveys conducted approximately 1100 flws 3000 beneficiaries delivered infant previous year catchment areas intervention control health subcenters half implementation mid2012 half two years afterward mid2014analyses included bivariate differenceindifference analyses across study groups resultsthe ictccs intervention associated frequent coordination awws ashas home visits greater job confidence among ashasthe intervention resulted 11 percentage point increase flw antenatal home visits third trimester p 004in postimplementation period postnatal home visits first week increased intervention 72 vs control 60 group p 001the intervention also resulted 13 12 21 percentage point increases skintoskin care p 001 breastfeeding immediately delivery p 001 ageappropriate complementary feeding p 001flw supervision rmnchn behaviors significantly impactedconclusions important improvements flw home visits rmnchn behaviors achievedthe ictccs tool shows promise facilitating flw effectiveness improving rmnchn behaviors