Observational studyMalaria journal2015
Feasibility and cost of using mobile phones for capturing drug safety information in peri-urban settlement in Ghana: a prospective cohort study of patients with uncomplicated malaria.
Observational study in Malaria journal, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 16 citations in OpenAlex.
- Evaluating phone call follow-ups in Sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PloS one · 2025Pooled it
- Digital Interventions for Managing Medication and Health Care Service Delivery in West Africa: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Pooled it
- The impact of home-based management of malaria on clinical outcomes in sub-Saharan African populations: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Tropical medicine and health · 2024Article
- Mobile Telephone Follow-Up to Ascertain Birth Outcomes in The Gambia.Telemedicine journal and e-health : the official journal of the American Telemedicine Association · 2020Observational
- Optimal Approach and Strategies to Strengthen Pharmacovigilance in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Cohort Study of Patients Treated with First-Line Artemisinin-Based Combination Therapies in the Nanoro Health and Demographic Surveillance System, Burkina Faso.Drug design, development and therapy · 2020Observational
- Factors that influence the intention to use mobile phone caller tunes for patient reporting of adverse drug reactions: a qualitative study.Therapeutic advances in drug safety · 2019Article
- Active Safety Surveillance in Africa: Pragmatism and Agility.Drug safety · 2018Article
- From Big Data to Smart Data for Pharmacovigilance: The Role of Healthcare Databases and Other Emerging Sources.Drug safety · 2018Article
- Evaluation of Two Strategies for Community-Based Safety Monitoring during Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention Campaigns in Senegal, Compared with the National Spontaneous Reporting System.Pharmaceutical medicine · 2018Article
- Safety of a fixed-dose combination of artesunate and amodiaquine for the treatment of uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria in real-life conditions of use in Côte d'Ivoire.Malaria journal · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
17 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe growing need to capture data on health and health events using faster and efficient means to enable prompt evidence-based decision-making is making the use of mobile phones for health an alternative means to capture anti-malarial drug safety data. This paper examined the feasibility and cost of using mobile phones vis-à-vis home visit to monitor adverse events (AEs) related to artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) for treatment of uncomplicated malaria in peri-urban Ghana.
methodsA prospective, observational, cohort study conducted on 4270 patients prescribed ACT in 21 health facilities. The patients were actively followed by telephone or home visit to document AEs associated with anti-malarial drugs. Call duration and travel distances of each visit were recorded. Pre-paid call cards and fuel for motorbike travels were used to determine cost of conducting both follow-ups. Ms-Excel 2010 and STATA 11.2 were used for analysis.
resultsOf the 4270 patients recruited, 4124 (96.6 %) were successfully followed up and analyzed. Of these, 1126/4124 (27.3 %) were children under 5 years. Most 3790/4124 (91.9 %) follow-ups were done within 7 days of ACT intake. Overall, follow up by phone (2671/4124-64.8 %) was almost two times the number done by home visits (1453/4124-35.2 %). Duration of telephone calls ranged from 38 s to 53 min, costing between GH¢0.26 (0.20USD) and GH¢41.70 (27.USD). On the average, the calls lasted 3 min 51 s (SD = 3 min, 21 s) costing GH¢2.70 (0.77USD). Distance travelled for home visit ranged from 0.65 to 62 km costing GH¢0.29 (0.20USD) and GH¢279.00 (79.70USD). Thirty-two per cent (1128/4124) of patients reported AEs. In total, 1831 AE were reported, 1016/1831(55.5 %) by telephone and 815/1831 (44.5 %) by home visits. Events such as nausea, dizziness, diarrhoea, and vomiting were commonly reported.
conclusionMajority of patients was successfully followed up by telephone and reported the most AEs. The cost of telephone interviewing was almost two times less than the cost of home visit. Telephone follow up should be considered for monitoring drug adverse events in low resource settings.
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