Text reminders improve health workers' case-management practices of outpatient malaria
THURSDAY, Aug. 4 (HealthDay News) -- Text message reminders are associated with substantial improvements in health workers' adherence to national guidelines for the management of outpatient pediatric malaria in Kenya, according to a study published online Aug. 4 in The Lancet.
Dejan Zurovac, Ph.D., from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, and colleagues investigated whether health workers receiving text message reminders on their mobile phones had an improved adherence to and maintenance of national treatment guidelines for outpatient pediatric malaria in Kenya. Between 2009 and May 2010, 119 health workers at 107 rural health facilities in 11 districts in coastal and western Kenya received text messages for six months on their personal mobile phones regarding malaria case management. A total of 2,269 children who needed treatment (1,157 in the intervention and 1,112 in the control group) were assessed for case-management practices. Health workers in the control group did not receive any text messages. Health workers were not masked to the intervention, but patients did not know whether they were in an intervention or control group. Correct management with artemether-lumefantrine, defined as a dichotomous composite indicator of treatment, dispensing, and counseling tasks in accordance with Kenyan national guidelines, was the primary outcome.
The investigators found that, based on intention to treat analysis, correct artemether-lumefantrine management improved significantly: by 23.7 percent immediately after the intervention and by 24.5 percent six months later.
"In resource-limited settings, malaria control programs should consider use of text messaging to improve health workers' case-management practices," the authors write.
Two of the study authors disclosed financial ties with Novartis Pharma AG.
Abstract
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