The impact of mobile phone based messages on maternal and child healthcare behaviour: a retrospective cross-sectional survey in Bangladesh

Abstract

Mobile phones are gradually becoming an integral part of healthcare services worldwide. We assessed the association between Aponjon mobile phone based messaging services and practices regarding childbirth and care of mother and neonates in selected areas in Bangladesh. METHODS:

In early 2014, 476 subscriber mothers whose last born child's age was between 3 and 18 months, were recruited to the study by Dnet from selected areas of Bangladesh. One group of mothers received the early warning messages from Aponjon during pregnancy (exposed; n = 210) while the other group of new mothers did not receive the messages during pregnancy as they had enrolled in the service after childbirth (non-exposed; n = 266). We undertook regression analyses to investigate the relationship between timing of exposure to Aponjon messages and socio-economic factors and outcomes of safe delivery, immediate breastfeeding post birth, delayed bathing of the neonate, and number of postnatal care (PNC) visits.