Short Message Service, Text Messaging
Conditions
Keywords
Short Message Service, newborn health, maternal behavior, good household pregnancy practice, care seeking
Brief summary
It is hypothesized that delivering short messages (SMS) to pregnant women can improve maternal and newborn health outcomes. This pilot offers mothers-to-be in rural China free daily short messages (SMS) via cell phone. The aim is to advise them on (a) good household prenatal practices (GHPP) and (b) care seeking (CS) in order to improve the quality of life for mothers and newborns.
Detailed description
Factorial quasi-randomization is utilized to compare two groups of interventions (i.e., GHPP and CS) as well as to compare these individual interventions with a combination of the interventions. It is also possible that distinct treatments have interaction effects, and we plan to test for this. Policymakers are interested in using different strategies to enhance neonatal health. For example, the bank of SMS developed by our team is a combination of several components: reminders for regular checkups, information on GHPP, and information on CS. From a policy perspective, the evaluation of the full bank of SMS may be sufficient for the government to decide whether or not to scale up the full bank of SMS. However, to understand maternal behavior and, for policy purposes, to understand which components in the bank of SMS should be scaled up, it is important to disentangle which component contributes most to final neonatal health. Taken together, are all the components of the bank of SMS effective in changing maternal behavior and enhancing neonatal health? Which mechanisms are at play, good household prenatal care, care seeking in pregnancy, or both?
Interventions
BEHAVIORALGood household prenatal practice
Knowledge on nutrition, labor, non-medical pain management, breastfeeding and depression
BEHAVIORALCare seeking
* Danger-sign recognition * Reminders for government projects
BEHAVIORALFull bank of SMS
* Danger-sign recognition * Reminders for government projects * Knowledge on nutrition, labor, non-medical pain management, breastfeeding and depression
Sponsors
Xi'an Jiaotong University
Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH)
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
FACTORIAL
Masking
SINGLE (Subject)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
FEMALE
Age
18 Years to 45 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
There were two inclusion criteria: Local pregnant women must 1) own a cell phone in the household, and 2) visit a MCHC for antenatal care during pregnancy.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Newborn health | the first month after birth | Newborn health is measured by appropriateness of weight for gestational age. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Actual number of prenatal visits over expected visits | In the duration of pregnancy, an expected average of 9 months | — |
| Uptake of government-subsidized programs | In the duration of pregnancy, an expected average of 9 months, and 1 month after birth | This outcome is measured by the following metrics: 1. Duration of folic acid 2. Uptake of infant vaccinations |
| C-section rate | child birth | — |
| Neonatal Adverse Outcome Indicator (NAOI) | the first month after birth | The NAOI focuses on measuring severe neonatal morbidity. |
| Near-miss | In the duration of pregnancy, an expected average of 9 months, and childbirth | The near-miss focuses on measuring severe maternal morbidity. |
| Psychological outcomes | In the duration of pregnancy, an expected average of 9 months | Attitudes, personal norms, self-efficacy, social desirability, intentions, plans, susceptibility, expectations, and severity |
| Maternal health | Child birth and 1 year after birth | Maternal health is measured by change of perception in general health and postpartum depression. |
Countries
China
Outcome results
None listed