Jesse Coleman 1,2 , Jaran Eriksen 2,3 , Vivian Black 4 , Anna Thorson 2 , Abigail Hatcher 5 Show Affiliations »
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Using mobile technology to support health care (mobile health [mHealth]) has been shown to improve health outcomes across a multitude of health specialties and across the world. Exploring mHealth user experiences can aid in understanding how and why an intervention was successful. The Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action (MAMA) was a free maternal mHealth SMS text messaging service that was offered to pregnant women in Johannesburg, South Africa, with the goal of improving maternal, fetal, and infant health outcomes. We conducted focus group discussions with MAMA users to learn about their experiences with the program. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this qualitative study was to gather opinions of participants of the MAMA maternal mHealth service regarding health care atmosphere, intervention use, and intervention feedback. METHODS: Prenatal and postnatal women (N=15) from public antenatal and postnatal care sites in central Johannesburg who were receiving free maternal health text messages (MAMA) participated in 3 focus group discussions. Predefined discussion topics included personal background, health care system experiences, MAMA program recruitment, acceptability, participant experiences, and feedback. RESULTS: The feedback regarding experiences with the health system were comprised of a few reports of positive experiences and many more reports of negative experiences such as long wait times, understaffed facilities, and poor service. Overall acceptability for the maternal text message intervention was high. Participants reflected that the messages were timely, written clearly, and felt supportive. Participants also reported sharing messages with friends and family. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that maternal mHealth interventions delivered through text messages can provide timely, relevant, useful, and supportive information to pregnant women and new mothers especially in settings where there may be mistrust of the health care system. ©Jesse Coleman, Jaran Eriksen, Vivian Black, Anna Thorson, Abigail Hatcher. Originally published in JMIR Human Factors (http://humanfactors.jmir.org), 29.06.2020.
BACKGROUND: Using mobile technology to support health care (mobile health [mHealth]) has been shown to improve health outcomes across a multitude of health specialties and across the world. Exploring mHealth user experiences can aid in understanding how and why an intervention was successful. The Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action (MAMA) was a free maternal mHealth SMS text messaging service that was offered to pregnant women in Johannesburg, South Africa, with the goal of improving maternal, fetal, and infant health outcomes. We conducted focus group discussions with MAMA users to learn about their experiences with the program. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this qualitative study was to gather opinions of participants of the MAMA maternal mHealth service regarding health care atmosphere, intervention use, and intervention feedback. METHODS: Prenatal and postnatal women (N=15) from public antenatal and postnatal care sites in central Johannesburg who were receiving free maternal health text messages (MAMA) participated in 3 focus group discussions. Predefined discussion topics included personal background, health care system experiences, MAMA program recruitment, acceptability, participant experiences, and feedback. RESULTS: The feedback regarding experiences with the health system were comprised of a few reports of positive experiences and many more reports of negative experiences such as long wait times, understaffed facilities, and poor service. Overall acceptability for the maternal text message intervention was high. Participants reflected that the messages were timely, written clearly, and felt supportive. Participants also reported sharing messages with friends and family. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that maternal mHealth interventions delivered through text messages can provide timely, relevant, useful, and supportive information to pregnant women and new mothers especially in settings where there may be mistrust of the health care system. ©Jesse Coleman, Jaran Eriksen, Vivian Black, Anna Thorson, Abigail Hatcher. Originally published in JMIR Human Factors (http://humanfactors.jmir.org), 29.06.2020.
Entities: Chemical
Disease
Gene
Species
Keywords:
South Africa; focus groups; limited resource settings; mHealth; maternal health; postnatal care; prenatal care; public health; reproductive health; text messaging
Year: 2020
PMID： 32459628 DOI： 10.2196/14078
Source DB: PubMed Journal: JMIR Hum Factors ISSN： 2292-9495