Clinical Evaluation of the Use of an mHealth Intervention on Quality of Care

Clinical Evaluation of the Use of an mHealth Intervention on Quality of Care Provided by Community Health Workers in Southwest Niger

Under the World Health Organization's (WHO) integrated community case management (iCCM) Rapid Access Expansion Program (RAcE), World Vision Niger and Canada supported the Niger Ministry of Public Health to implement iCCM in four health districts in Niger in 2013. Community health workers (CHWs), known as Relais Communautaire (RCom), were deployed in their communities to diagnose and treat children under five years of age presenting with diarrhea, malaria and pneumonia and refer children with severe illness to the higher-level facilities. Two of the districts piloted RCom using smartphones equipped with an application to support quality case management and provide good timely clinical data. A two-arm cluster randomized trial assessed the impact of use of the mHealth application mainly on quality of care (QoC), but also on motivation, retention and supervision

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Diarrhea; Malaria; Acute Respiratory Infection
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: mHealth Intervention for Quality of Care

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 520
• Phase: Not Applicable

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 2 months to 4 years (Child)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• children presenting symptoms of illness

Exclusion Criteria:

-

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: RCom equipped with a smartphone	Other: mHealth Intervention for Quality of Care; Does use of a specially equipped smartphone make a difference in the diagnosis and treatment by RCom of malaria, pneumonia and diarrhea in children aged 2 to 59 months
No Intervention: RCom with paper-based system

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Quality of Care (QoC) provided by RCom	The maximum QoC score was 31 points; the score was weighted with two-thirds of the score allocated to screening questions and correct identification of the danger signs and signs/symptoms of serious conditions A perfect score was achieved when RComs asked all 10 health screening questions and correctly classified 4 major danger signs and 6 serious symptoms, made appropriate referral, and provided advice to caregivers.	30 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: World Vision Canada
• Collaborators: Ryerson University; World Health Organization; Global Affairs Canada; Ministry of Public Health Niger

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): March 1, 2016
• Primary Completion (Actual): October 1, 2016
• Study Completion (Actual): October 1, 2016

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: February 26, 2019
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 11, 2019
• First Posted (Actual): March 14, 2019

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): March 14, 2019
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 11, 2019
• Last Verified: March 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Infections; Respiratory Tract Diseases; Signs and Symptoms, Digestive; Diarrhea; Respiratory Tract Infections
• Other Study ID Numbers: 001 (Buy Pharma Ecza Deposu San. Tic. Ltd.)

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No