Douglas Johnson|Randall Juras|Pamela Riley|Minki Chatterji|Phoebe Sloane|Soon Kyu Choi|Ben Johns
A randomized controlled trial of the impact of a family planning mHealth service on knowledge and use of contraception
Washington Center for Equitable Growth|University of California, Los Angeles
mhealth use mobile phones health promising largely untested method increasing family planning knowledge developing countries study estimates effect m4rh mhealth service kenya provides family planning information via text message consumers knowledge use contraceptionwe randomly assigned new consumers m4rh service receive either full access limited access m4rh collected data outcomes sending questions directly consumers via text messageresponse rates text message surveys ranged 518 135 despite relatively low response rates response rates similar across fullaccess limitedaccess groups find full access m4rh increased consumers scores test contraceptive knowledge 14 95 confidence interval 99182 compared control group limited access m4rh m4rh increase consumers use contraception likelihood discussing family planning partners likelihood visiting clinic discuss family planningtext messages may increase family planning knowledge lead behavior changetext messages effective method increasing family planning knowledge may insufficient cause behavior change