Maternal Health Care
Conditions
Keywords
maternal health, mobile health tools, symptom checker
Brief summary
The goal of this study is to evaluate the integration of a symptom checker (SC) into the MomConnect (MC) platform to support maternal healthcare in South Africa. The main questions it aims to answer are: * Does the SC provide safe and appropriate medical advice? * Does the SC help mothers make informed decisions about when and where to seek healthcare, saving time and money by avoiding unnecessary visits? * Does the SC improve access to care for those facing significant healthcare barriers? Participants will answer survey questions before and after using the SC. A subset of participants will also be invited to participate in structured telephone interviews. The study will help researchers assess the SC's impact on healthcare decisions and resource use in South Africa.
Interventions
None listed
Sponsors
Reach Digital Health (formerly Praekelt.org)
Citizen Surveys
Rockefeller Foundation
Ada Health GmbH
Study design
Observational model
OTHER
Time perspective
OTHER
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
FEMALE
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Women registered with MomConnect, who would like to assess their or their child's symptoms * At least 18 years of age * Women with access to WhatsApp * Capable of completing a symptom assessment in English
Exclusion criteria
* Incapable of completing a symptom assessment in English via WhatsApp (e.g. due to illiteracy, language barrier, mental impairment or inebriation or other incapacity or lack of access to WhatsApp)
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| Proportion of appropriate advice by the SC for mother and child | From data collection with participant enrolment to the completion of panel ratings, approximately 2-3 months after participant enrolment. |
| Proportion of safe advice by the SC for mother and child | From data collection with participant enrolment to the completion of panel ratings, approximately 2-3 months after participant enrolment. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| Health seeking behaviour before and after using Ada+MomConnect | From data collection with participant enrolment to the completion of the follow-up survey send out 1 week after enrolment. |
| Gaining of health information in a fast and standardised way | On the day of enrolment. |
| Usability | On the day of enrolment. |
| Time saved from avoiding unnecessary healthcare consultations | On the day of enrolment. |
| Time saved and associated estimate of income retained through avoiding unnecessary healthcare consultations | On the day of enrolment. |
| Healthcare resource utilisation | On the day of enrolment. |
| Direct Healthcare costs | On the day of enrolment. |
| Potential prevention of a health problem in Perinatal Period for Mother or Child | From data collection with participant enrolment to the completion of panel ratings, approximately 2-3 months after participant enrolment. |
| Potential prevention of a SEVERE health problem in Perinatal Period for Mother or Child | From data collection with participant enrolment to the completion of panel ratings, approximately 2-3 months after participant enrolment. |
| Potential Occurrence of a health problem (adverse event) in Perinatal Period for Mother and Child | From data collection with participant enrolment to the completion of panel ratings, approximately 2-3 months after participant enrolment. |
| Potential Occurrence of a SEVERE health problem (severe adverse event) in Perinatal Period for Mother or Child | From data collection with participant enrolment to the completion of panel ratings, approximately 2-3 months after participant enrolment. |
| Number of participants who consulted an HCP after using Ada+MomConnect | After completion of the follow-up survey send out 1 week after enrolment. |
Other
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| Time to receiving advice | On the day of enrolment. |
| Time to diagnosis | From data collection with participant enrolment to the completion of the follow-up survey send out 1 week after enrolment. |
| Quantitative and qualitative information collected in the phone survey on demographics, health seeking behaviour and user experience with the symptom checker | Approx. 1-2 weeks after enrolment. |
| Condition comparison | On the day of enrolment. |
| Socioeconomic background of users | On the day of enrolment. |
| Subgroup analysis | From data collection with participant enrolment to the completion of panel ratings, approximately 2-3 months after participant enrolment |
Countries
South Africa
Outcome results
None listed