Researchers from the School of Public Health at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (SPH-KNUST) in collaboration with the Ghana Health Service (GHS) have organised a stakeholder meeting to disseminate their findings from the MOBChild study on Wednesday, 8th December, 2021 at the Golden Bean Hotel, Kumasi.
The meeting dubbed ‘Findings from the MOBChild study; Lessons learnt, and next steps’ was funded by the International Development Research Centre, Canada (IDRC).
The MOBChild intervention study seeks to adopt a mobile phone health information system which allows parents to seek and receive diagnosis and treatment for their sick children at home.
This was designed with an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) technology to empower caregivers to identify health problems of their children for early intervention. The study sought to address these gaps in health-seeking behaviour by utilizing the multi-purpose function of a Mobile Phone-based Health Information system (MHIS).
The Principal Investigator, Professor Ellis Owusu-Dabo called on the government to adopt a mobile phone-based IVR system to complement and strengthen existing health information systems for early detection of childhood illnesses.
He believes the system has the potential to improve child survival in line with Sustainable Development Goal 3 was launched because of deaths caused by preventable infectious diseases among under-five children.
‘Most infant and child deaths occur in rural areas, where health infrastructure and other resources are inadequate. Also, limited access to primary health facilities has compounded the situation,’ Professor Owusu-Dabo explained.
Meanwhile, a well-functioning health system with a robust Health Information System (HIS) could easily respond and deliver real-time data to manage most of these preventable childhood illnesses, amid increased mobile phone use in Ghana.
Dr. (Mrs.) Augustina Sylverken, a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Theoretical and Applied Biology, in her presentation on ‘Reducing Child Mortality: The Role of Mobile Electronic Health Information System’ revealed that unreliable health data and poor information technology infrastructure; with people in the rural settings mostly affected by the health inequity contributes to child mortality.
She outlined some outcomes expected from the study which include Sustained integration of a more reliable mobile phone-based health information system in the GHS system for decision making, Improved knowledge and capacity of caregivers and health staff on disease identification and effective use of MHIS.
Findings
The results show that a total of 2,045 calls were recorded by the system. Of the registered calls, there was an overall uptake of 66% (580/880).
Again, out of the total calls made to the system, over 1400 were unregistered-without prior registration by the system but managed to make calls for help. All caregivers accessed the system for health advice regarding what to do with their sick children.
For diarrhoeal diseases, a 6-monthly survey revealed a decrease in the incidence from 14.9% at baseline, to 17.4% at first follow-up, 6.6% second follow-up and 4.5% at end line respectively. While for fever, the results were correspondingly as follows; 17.2%, 16.8%, 13.7% and 29%, respectively
Recommendations
According to the MobChild study Coordinator, Dr. Aliyu Mohammed, the study highlights the need for policy makers to adopt a mobile phone based IVR system to complement and strengthen existing health information systems for early detection of childhood illnesses.
Dr. Aliyu Mohammed, therefore, charged GHS to adopt MHIS to improve caregivers’ knowledge on child health practices and health seeking behaviours, monitor community level childhood illnesses in near real-time, prepare adequately and respond to health needs of affected population.