Mobile health (mhealth) has emerged as a powerful resource in the medical armamentarium against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. We sought to determine among adult caregivers of HIV-exposed/infected children; the extent of mobile phone ownership, the ability to communicate in Cameroon?s national official languages (NOL), and the refusal to receive such reminders.
Methods:
We conducted a pre-trial analysis of potentials participants of the MORE CARE trial.
MORE CARE took place from January through March 2013 in three geographic locations in Cameroon. We included caregivers aged 18 years or older.
Written communication was assessed by the ability to read and understand information presented in the consent form. Verbal communication was assessed during a two-way conversation and in a discussion about HIV infection.
A question about mobile phone ownership and another about refusal to receive reminders via mobile phone were phrased to allow ?Yes? or ?No? as the only possible reply. A p
Results:
We enrolled 301 caregivers of HIV-exposed/infected children from rural (n=119), semi-urban (n=142) and urban (n=40) areas of Cameroon.
The mean caregiver age was 42.9 years (SD 13.4) and 85% were women. A fifth of our study population overall had at least one of the three obstaclesto mobile phone reminders.
By region, 39.5% in rural, 6.3% in semi-urban, and 7.5% in urban setting had at least one obstacle, with significant differences between the rural and urban settings (p
The ability to communicate in NOL orally was 89.7% and 84.4% in writing (p=0.052). Mobile phone ownership (p
Conclusions:
The use of mHealth was limited in about one fifth of our population.
The greatest obstacle was the inability to use oral or written NOL, followed by non-ownership of a mobile phone. These impediments were higher in a rural setting as compared to urban or semi-urban areas.
Author: Jean BignaJean NoubiapClaudia S PlottelCharles KouanfackSinata Koulla-Shiro
Credits/Source: BMC Health Services Research 2014, 14:523
Published on: 2014-10-26
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