African Rheumatology | 24 March 2011
Mobile Phone-Based Health Education Programmes for Maternal Care in Nairobi Slums: Performance Outcomes Over Two Years
C, h, i, l, l, u, m, w, a, C, h, e, g, e, ,, K, i, h, a, r, a, K, i, p, r, o, p, ,, N, j, o, r, o, g, e, N, d, e, r, i, t, u
Abstract
Maternal care in Nairobi slums is characterized by high rates of morbidity and mortality due to preventable conditions such as anaemia and malnutrition. A quasi-experimental design was employed, with baseline data collected from 500 participants. A cluster-randomized trial approach was used to allocate participants into intervention and control groups. An average of 82% adherence rate to programme activities was observed across both genders in the intervention group compared to 63% in the control group, indicating a significant improvement (p < 0.05). The mobile phone-based health education programme significantly improved maternal care knowledge and practices among mothers living in Nairobi slums. Further research is recommended to explore long-term sustainability of these programmes and their scalability across different settings. Treatment effect was estimated with $\text{logit}(p<em>i)=\beta</em>0+\beta^\top X_i$, and uncertainty reported using confidence-interval based inference.