scholarly journals COVID-19 response in low- and middle-income countries: Don’t overlook the role of mobile phone communication

2020 ◽  
Vol 99 ◽  
pp. 334-337 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lilly M. Verhagen ◽  
R. de Groot ◽  
C.A. Lawrence ◽  
J. Taljaard ◽  
M.F. Cotton ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Phone ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Mobile Phone Communication ◽  
Low And Middle Income

scholarly journals Engaging Patients through Mobile Phones: Demonstrator Services, Success Factors, and Future Opportunities in Low and Middle-income Countries

2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (01) ◽  
pp. 182-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Hartzler ◽  
T. Wetter
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Phone ◽  
Mobile Phones ◽  
Success Factors ◽  
Clinical Care ◽  
Biomedical Literature ◽  
Consumer Health ◽  
Enabling Factors ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Low And Middle Income

Summary Objectives: Evolving technology and infrastructure can benefit patients even in the poorest countries through mobile health (mHealth). Yet, what makes mobile-phone-based services succeed in low and middle-income countries (LMIC) and what opportunities does the future hold that still need to be studied. We showcase demonstrator services that leverage mobile phones in the hands of patients to promote health and facilitate health care. Methods: We surveyed the recent biomedical literature for demonstrator services that illustrate well-considered examples of mobile phone interventions for consumer health. We draw upon those examples to discuss enabling factors, scalability, reach, and potential of mHealth as well as obstacles in LMIC. Results: Among the 227 articles returned by a PubMed search, we identified 55 articles that describe services targeting health consumers equipped with mobile phones. From those articles, we showcase 19 as demonstrator services across clinical care, prevention, infectious diseases, and population health. Services range from education, reminders, reporting, and peer support, to epidemiologic reporting, and care management with phone communication and messages. Key achievements include timely adherence to treatment and appointments, clinical effectiveness of treatment reminders, increased vaccination coverage and uptake of screening, and capacity for efficient disease surveillance. We discuss methodologies of delivery and evaluation of mobile-phone-based mHealth in LMIC, including service design, social context, and environmental factors to success. Conclusion: Demonstrated promises using mobile phones in the poorest countries encourage a future in which IMIA takes a lead role in leveraging mHealth for citizen empowerment through Consumer Health Informatics.

The role of primary care in low- and middle-income countries

2013 ◽  
pp. 96-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Goldberg ◽  
Graham Thornicroft ◽  
Nadja van Ginneken
Keyword(s):  
Primary Care ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Low And Middle Income

scholarly journals mHealth and Perinatal Depression in Low-and Middle-Income Countries: A Scoping Review of the Literature

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (20) ◽  
pp. 7679
Author(s):  
Aliyah Dosani ◽  
Harshmeet Arora ◽  
Sahil Mazmudar
Keyword(s):  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Mobile Phone ◽  
Scoping Review ◽  
Perinatal Depression ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Mobile Phone Applications ◽  
Perinatal Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Low And Middle Income

Women in low- and middle-income countries have high rates of perinatal depression. As smartphones become increasingly accessible around the world, there is an opportunity to explore innovative mHealth tools for the prevention, screening, and management of perinatal depression. We completed a scoping review of the literature pertaining to the use of mobile phone technologies for perinatal depression in low-and middle-income countries. PubMed CINHAL, and Google Scholar databases were searched, generating 423 results. 12 articles met our inclusion criteria. Two of the 12 articles reviewed mobile phone applications. The remaining 9 articles were study protocols or descriptive/intervention studies. Our results reveal that minimal literature is currently available on the use of mobile health for perinatal depression in low- and middle-income countries. We found four articles that present the results of an intervention that were delivered through mobile phones for the treatment of perinatal depressive symptoms and an additional qualitative study describing the perceptions of mothers receiving cognitive behavioral therapy via telephones. These studies demonstrated that depressive symptoms improved after the interventions. There is potential to improve the quality of mHealth interventions, specifically mobile phone applications for perinatal depressive symptoms and depression, through meaningful collaborative work between healthcare professionals and application developers.

scholarly journals The Effects of Adolescent Childbearing on Literacy and Numeracy in Bangladesh, Malawi, and Zambia

Demography ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (5) ◽  
pp. 1899-1929 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie R. Psaki ◽  
Erica Soler-Hampejsek ◽  
Jyotirmoy Saha ◽  
Barbara S. Mensch ◽  
Sajeda Amin
Keyword(s):  
Adolescent Mothers ◽  
School Dropout ◽  
Academic Skills ◽  
First Birth ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Adolescent Childbearing ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
English Literacy ◽  
Low And Middle Income

Abstract Global investments in girls’ education have been motivated, in part, by an expectation that more-educated women will have smaller and healthier families. However, in many low- and middle-income countries, the timing of school dropout and first birth coincide, resulting in a rapid transition from the role of student to the role of mother for adolescent girls. Despite growing interest in the effects of pregnancy on levels of school dropout, researchers have largely overlooked the potential effect of adolescent childbearing on literacy and numeracy. We hypothesize that becoming a mother soon after leaving school may cause the deterioration of skills gained in school. Using longitudinal data from Bangladesh, Malawi, and Zambia, we test our hypothesis by estimating fixed-effects linear regression models to address the endogeneity in the relationship between childbearing and academic skills. To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the effects of adolescent childbearing on academic skills in low- and middle-income countries. Our results indicate that among those with low levels of grade attainment, first birth has a negative effect on English literacy and numeracy. Among those with higher levels of grade attainment, we find little evidence of effects of childbearing on academic skills. Childbearing also has little effect on local language literacy. Beyond the immediate loss of English literacy and numeracy, if these skills lead to better health and more economic productivity, then adolescent childbearing may have longer-term repercussions than previously understood. In addition to ongoing efforts to increase educational attainment and school quality in low- and middle-income countries, investments are needed to strengthen the academic skills of adolescent mothers to secure the demographic and economic promise of expanded education for girls and women.

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