Stine Lund|Birgitte Bruun Nielsen|Maryam Hemed|Ida Marie Boas|Azzah Said|Khadija Said|Mkoko H Makungu|Vibeke Rasch
Mobile phones improve antenatal care attendance in Zanzibar: a cluster randomized controlled trial
University of Copenhagen|Aarhus University Hospital|University of Copenhagen|Odense University Hospital
applying mobile phones healthcare increasingly prioritized strengthen healthcare systems antenatal care potential reduce maternal morbidity improve newborns survival benefit may realized subsaharan africa attendance quality care declining evaluated association mobile phone intervention antenatal care resourcelimited setting aimed assess antenatal care comprehensive way taking consideration utilisation antenatal care well content timing interventions pregnancy study open label pragmatic clusterrandomised controlled trial primary healthcare facilities zanzibar unit randomisation 2550 pregnant women 1311 interventions 1239 controls attended antenatal care selected primary healthcare facilities included first antenatal care visit followed 42 days delivery 24 primary health care facilities six districts randomized either mobile phone intervention standard care intervention consisted mobile phone textmessage voucher component primary outcome measure four antenatal care visits pregnancy secondary outcome measures tetanus vaccination preventive treatment malaria gestational age last antenatal care visit antepartum referral mobile phone intervention associated increase antenatal care attendance intervention group 44 women received four antenatal care visits versus 31 control group 239 95 ci 103555 trend towards improved timing quality antenatal care services across secondary outcome measures although statistically significant wired mothers mobile phone intervention significantly increased proportion women receiving recommended four antenatal care visits pregnancy trend towards improved quality care women receiving preventive health services women attending antenatal care late pregnancy women antepartum complications identified referred mobile phone applications may contribute towards improved maternal newborn health considered policy makers resourcelimited settings clinicaltrialsgov nct01821222