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Frequency of Visual Impairment Among School Children and Effectiveness of mHealth Referral Reminder on Uptake of Referral Services

NCT06616051 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 320

Last updated 2025-10-07

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

This study tested whether mobile health (mHealth) tools can affect referral uptake among schoolchildren with vision problems.Visual impairment in children often goes untreated in low- and middle-income countries, even when detected during school screenings, because parents do not follow up on referral advice.

In this randomized controlled trial, children aged 5-15 years from two government schools in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, were screened for vision problems using a smartphone-based application. Those identified with possible impairment were randomly assigned to one of two groups. The control group received the usual printed referral form, while the intervention group received the printed referral plus automated, multicomponent SMS reminders in the local language. These reminders included health promotion messages, a visual depiction of the child's vision, and practical instructions about how to reach the hospital.

The main outcome was the proportion of referred children who attended the hospital within eight weeks. Secondary analysis examined whether referral uptake was linked with child and family characteristics such as age, sex, and parental education.

This was a minimal-risk, school-based trial with 80 participants. The study was ethically approved by the Army Medical College Ethics Review Committee (NUMS). Findings are expected to provide new evidence on the usefulness of mobile phone-based reminders for improving eye health care among children in resource-limited settings.

Conditions

  • Visual Impairment
  • Refractive Error

Interventions

OTHER

Multicomponent SMS reminder

SMS reminder will be delivered every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday for a duration of eight weeks, or until the child attends the hospital. Research team has already developed an automated text message reminder system for this study, taking into account the local context. The messages was designed with input from a panel of public health consultants and research supervisors, drawing on resources from the WHO Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Messages Library \[21\]. It will comprise two main components: a) web-based application for children registration and automated reminder scheduling, and b) an SMS application for text messaging that is sent automatically. Messages will be sent in Urdu, the native language, and will not require a reply. Each message will include four elements: Health promotion message, visual depiction of a child's vision, a customized action plan detailing how to get to the hospital including the location, how much money is needed and what to carry with them.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Syed Fawad Mashhadi

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Shamaila Mohsin, PhD · National University of Medical Sciences

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
SCREENING
Masking
SINGLE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
5 Years
Max Age
15 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2024-10-21
Primary Completion
2024-12-30
Completion
2024-12-30

Countries

  • Pakistan

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT06616051 on ClinicalTrials.gov