Impact of a Smartphone Intervention on Tanzanian Women's Childbirth Location

Summary

This study investigates whether training Community Health Workers (CHW) to use a smartphone-based prenatal counseling application as a "job aid" instead of the existing paper based standard is associated with increased women's use of maternal health services in Singida region, Tanzania.

Conditions

• Maternal Death Affecting Fetus or Newborn
• Delivery Complication
• Obstetric Complication
• Birth Injuries
• Delivery; Injury, Maternal
• Delivery Problem for Fetus

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

SUSTAIN Smartphone training of CHW (SP+)

Intervention (Smart phone assisted): During prenatal household visits, the smart phone based application guides CHW through electronic "decision tree" protocols, directing them to specific health/nutrition counseling topics and messages based on each woman's gestational age, and her answers to a specific series of diagnostic questions. Based on the client's gestational age, the tool directs CHW to lessons in an accompanying photo book, and reminds them to counsel on the importance of accessing timed and targeted maternal health services at health facilities. The application also assists CHW to identify danger signs during pregnancy, flags clients who require immediate referral to health facilities, and reminds CHW to follow-up with clients who were previously referred to clinics.

BEHAVIORAL

SUSTAIN Paperbased training of CHW (SOC)

SUSTAIN Paperbased training of CHW (SOC): During prenatal household visits, the CHW asks a specific series of diagnostic questions based on the client's gestational age, offers counsel on the importance of accessing appropriate maternal health services at health facilities and uses lessons in an accompanying photo book to deliver messages on a variety of maternal and newborn health and nutrition topics. CHW are trained to identify danger signs during pregnancy, flag clients who require immediate referral to health facilities, and follow-up with clients who were previously referred to clinics.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• World Vision

  collaborator OTHER

• Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Toronto

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Daniel W Sellen, PhD · University of Toronto

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

16 Years

Max Age

49 Years

Sex

FEMALE

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2013-07-23

Primary Completion

2014-06-25

Completion

2014-06-25