Background

A framework for mHealth in Ethiopia developed in 2011 suggested mobile health interventions can be used to address the needs for communication, referral, training and education, supply chain management, data exchange and consultation. Although the mHealth interventions have showed huge opportunities in the health care so far, there has been insufficient scientific evidence and little is known about their effectiveness in improving maternal health services specifically post-natal care in Ethiopia.

Objectives

• Assess the effectiveness and feasibility of reminder based mHealth interventions in improving post natal care service in Gondar town, Ethiopia.
• Determine facilitators and barriers of implementing reminder based mHealth interventions in Gondar town, Ethiopia
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Methods

Study areas

Gondar town as an intervention and Bahirdar town as a control.

Study period

The study starts from August 1, 2017 and ends by April 30,2018. In the first month (August) baseline data will be collected, the next six months ( Sep- Feb) will be used for follow up and the last two months ( march-April) will be used for final report and manuscript writing.

Study Design

Randomized controlled study design will be used to assess the role of reminder based mHealth interventions in improving post-natal care services (PNC).

Intervention

A computerized application will be developed for SMS reminders scheduling. The system will be hosted at the university of Gondar server center with its own dedicated space and secured access to research staff members. The reminder based mHealth application will be interfaced with the server to send the messages to the mothers based on automatically configured time. The text message will contain greetings, information that reminds the appointment date and additional health information about the importance of the PNC service.

Outcome Measurement

A cross sectional survey will be used at baseline and at end line to assess the outcomes. The primary outcomes will be

• Percentage of women who attended all PNC care schedules
• Percentage of women who attended early PNC care schedules