McBride B, O'Neil JD, Hue TT, Eni R, Nguyen CV, Nguyen LT. Improving health equity for ethnic minority women in Thai Nguyen, Vietnam: qualitative results from an mHealth intervention targeting maternal and infant health service access.
J Public Health (Oxf) 2019;
40:ii32-ii41. [PMID:
30252117 PMCID:
PMC6294030 DOI:
10.1093/pubmed/fdy165]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/20/2018] [Accepted: 08/29/2018] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Background
Ethnic minority women (EMW) in Vietnam experience disproportionately high infant and maternal mortality rates due to low social status, poverty and remoteness from health centres. This project piloted and evaluated a low-cost mobile health (mHealth) intervention called mMom utilizing behaviour change communication (BCC) to improve access to maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) services and health equity among EMW living in remote areas.
Methods
The mMom intervention built an integrated mHealth platform which sent timely MNCH information and BCC text messages to participants, and engaged health workers towards increasing their interaction and building demand for quality natal care. Mid-term and final qualitative evaluations were conducted to assess the intervention's acceptability and impact.
Results
In evaluations, all participants expressed satisfaction with the quality, timeliness and convenience of the messages, and health workers reported increased efficiency and quality of care. The use of BCC increased care-seeking from EMW and strengthened relationships with health providers.
Conclusion
The mMom project demonstrated the acceptability of mHealth in a remote Vietnamese region with a high proportion of disadvantaged EMW. The messages promoted increased contact between participants and health providers, which holds potential to address the marginalization of EMW from the health system.
Keywords
behaviour change communication, eHealth, ethnic minorities, health equity, mHealth, MNCH, mobile health, Vietnam.
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