A Theoretical Framework for mHealth-Supported Community Palliative Care: Evaluating Visit Tracking and Patient Outcomes in Rural Mozambique

Palliative care provision in rural sub-Saharan Africa faces significant challenges, including fragmented community-based care and limited data on patient outcomes. In Mozambique, community health workers are essential for delivering palliative care, but their work is often poorly documented, hindering programme evaluation and patient support. This article proposes a theoretical framework to evaluate the effectiveness of a mobile health (mHealth) platform designed to track community health worker visits and monitor palliative care patient outcomes in rural Mozambique. The framework aims to structure the assessment of how digital visit tracking influences care coordination and patient-reported outcomes. The framework is developed through a synthesis of relevant theoretical constructs, including the Technology Acceptance Model, the Practical Robust Implementation and Sustainability Model (PRISM), and outcome measures from palliative care literature. It outlines proposed relationships between mHealth use, data completeness, care processes, and patient outcomes for future empirical testing. Key insights: The framework posits that consistent use of the mHealth platform will lead to a measurable increase in documented visit completeness, which is hypothesised to correlate with improved symptom management. A central theme is that reliable data capture facilitates more timely clinical interventions and psychosocial support. This theoretical framework provides a structured basis for evaluating mHealth-supported community palliative care programmes. It highlights the potential of digital tools to strengthen care delivery through improved data visibility and accountability in resource-limited settings. Future research should apply this framework in longitudinal studies to test its hypotheses. Programme implementers should consider integrating such theoretical models during mHealth design phases to ensure robust evaluation of both implementation processes and patient-centred outcomes. palliative care, community health workers, mHealth, theoretical framework, Mozambique, sub-Saharan Africa, visit tracking, patient outcomes This article contributes a novel theoretical framework for the African context, designed to guide the evaluation of mHealth interventions in community palliative care, linking implementation processes to patient outcomes.