Reproductive Health
Conditions
Keywords
Reproductive Health, Contraception, Public Health, Sexual Health, Adolescents, Mobile Health
Brief summary
The purpose of the Study on Mhealth and Reproductive Health in Teens (SMART) is to evaluate the effectiveness of using text messages to improve the knowledge, communication, and attitudes about reproductive health among female adolescents in Greater Accra senior high schools. Previous research as well as qualitative work conducted by the Investigators shows that there are significant gaps in knowledge about reproductive health including on topics of pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and contraception among secondary school students in Greater Accra. These gaps contribute to unwanted pregnancy and spread of sexually transmitted diseases. At the same time, phone ownership and use among young people has spread rapidly, especially in urban areas such as Accra. The Study on Mhealth and Reproductive Health (SMART) will seek to use mobile phone messages to increase awareness of these reproductive health issues among female adolescents in Accra. The objectives of SMART are to evaluate whether the messages can increase knowledge, increase communication, and improve attitudes towards reproductive health among adolescents in Greater Accra. By conducting a randomized controlled trial, we will be able to statistically evaluate if the messages have had any effect on improving outcomes for adolescents in the areas of knowledge, communication, and attitudes. This work can help guide future programs that can scale up this intervention and ultimately improve the health and wellbeing of adolescents across Ghana.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALInteractive Treatment
Mobile phone text messaging service about reproductive health
BEHAVIORALBasic Treatment
Mobile phone text messaging service about reproductive health
OTHERControl, comparator arm
Sponsors
Weiss Family Program Fund for Research in Development Economics
Harvard Lab for Economic Applications and Policy
Harvard University
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
14 Years to 24 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
(for treated and control subjects): * female * aged 14-24 * secondary school student at day school
Exclusion criteria
(for treated and control subjects): * male * secondary school student at boarding school Inclusion criteria (for spillover subjects): * aged 14-24 * secondary school student at day school
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Knowledge of Reproductive Health True/False Quiz of 20 questions | 5-6 months after baseline and then again 14-16 months after baseline | — |
| Sexual behavior | 14-16 months after baseline | Assessed via a number of items: age at sexual debut, sex without a condom in the past year, pregnancy in the past year, ever had sex, use of condom at sexual debut, sex in the past year, used any contraception in the past year, used contraception at last sex, had an abortion |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Communication about reproductive health with family, friends, professional, and boyfriend | 3 months (asked 5-6 months after baseline and again 12-14 months after baseline) | Communication is assessed via questionnaire items that ask the participant how often the participant has communicated with family, friends, professional, and boyfriend over the past 3 months. |
| Attitudes about reproductive health as measured by 5-point Likert type scale | 5-6 months after baseline and asked again 12-14 months after baseline | Attitudes about reproductive health are measured via questionnaire items that ask participants about their attitudes about reproductive health. They respond via a 5-point Likert type scale. |
Other
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Spillover effect | 3-6 months | Assess how much knowledge, communication, and attitudes spilled over to students in same school but not receiving any intervention |
| Process Measures | 3-6 months | Assess whether students liked the intervention, whether they used it, and other questions designed to understand whether the mobile service was useful from students' perspectives |
| Heterogeneous effects | 3-6 months | Assess whether treatment effects are heterogeneous along a number of dimensions: age (younger/older), category of school, and community connectedness. |
| Cost effectiveness | 3-6 months | Assess whether the interactive treatment arm was cost effective compared to the basic treatment arm. |
Countries
Ghana
Outcome results
None listed