Trial reportPloS one2017
Mobile health treatment support intervention for HIV and tuberculosis in Mozambique: Perspectives of patients and healthcare workers.
Trial report in PloS one, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 50 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
50 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Barriers associated with the implementation, adoption, scale-up and sustainability of mHealth in Sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review guided by the NASSS Framework.BMJ health & care informatics · 2026Pooled it
- Impact of Digital Health on Patient-Provider Relationships in Respiratory Secondary Care Based on Qualitative and Quantitative Evidence: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Pooled it
- eHealth in TB clinical management.The international journal of tuberculosis and lung disease : the official journal of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease · 2022Pooled it
- Understanding barriers of receiving short message service appointment reminders across African regions: a systematic review.BMJ health & care informatics · 2022Pooled it
- Barriers to the Use of Mobile Health in Improving Health Outcomes in Developing Countries: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2019Pooled it
- Toward Developing a Standardized Core Set of Outcome Measures in Mobile Health Interventions for Tuberculosis Management: Systematic Review.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2019Pooled it
- Effect of a phone reminder system on patient-centered tuberculosis treatment adherence among adults in Northwest Ethiopia: a randomised controlled trial.BMJ health & care informatics · 2021Trial
- Patterns of usage and preferences of users for tuberculosis-related text messages and voice calls in Uganda.The international journal of tuberculosis and lung disease : the official journal of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease · 2018Trial
- Patient and carer perceptions and experiences of technology-facilitated appointment reminders in healthcare: a scoping review.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2026Article
- Effectiveness of Short Message Service Reminders on Timely Pick-up of Antiretroviral Therapy Among Consenting Persons with HIV in Zambézia Province, Mozambique.AIDS research and human retroviruses · 2026Article
- Feasibility of smartphone-enabled asynchronous video directly observed therapy to improve viral suppression outcomes among HIV unsuppressed children and adolescents in Kenya.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Experiences of people living with HIV/AIDS in selected hospitals in Imo state, Nigeria, regarding the usability and satisfaction of reminders using M-health features: a qualitative study.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Contextual factors influencing implementation of tuberculosis digital adherence technologies: a scoping review guided by the RE-AIM framework.BMJ global health · 2025Article
- Qualitative Evaluation of mHealth Implementation for Infectious Disease Care in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Narrative Review.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2024Review
- A Digital Intervention to Promote Self-Management Self-Efficacy Among Community-Dwelling Individuals With Stroke: Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR rehabilitation and assistive technologies · 2024Article
- Article
- Perceptions of HIV patients on the use of cell phones as a tool to improve their antiretroviral adherence in Northwest, Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study.BMC public health · 2023Article
- Using chronobiology-based second-generation artificial intelligence digital system for overcoming antimicrobial drug resistance in chronic infections.Annals of medicine · 2023Review
- Effect of Phone Text Message Reminders on Compliance with Rabies Post-Exposure Prophylaxis following Dog Bites in Rural Kenya.Vaccines · 2023Article
- Scoping review of health information technology usability methods leveraged in Africa.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundStudies have been conducted in developing countries using SMS to communicate with patients to reduce the number of missed appointments and improve retention in treatment, however; very few have been scaled up. One possible reason for this could be that patients or staff are dissatisfied with the method in some way. This paper reports a study of patients' and healthcare workers' (HCW) views on an mHealth intervention aiming to support retention in antiretroviral therapy (ART) and tuberculosis (TB) treatment in Mozambique.
methodsThe study was conducted at five healthcare centres in Mozambique. Automated SMS health promotions and reminders were sent to patients in a RCT. A total of 141 patients and 40 HCWs were interviewed. Respondents rated usefulness, perceived benefits, ease of use, satisfaction, and risks of the SMS system using a Likert scale questionnaire. A semi-structured interview guide was followed. Interviews were transcribed and thematic analysis was conducted.
resultsBoth patients and HCW found the SMS system useful and reliable. Most highly rated positive effects were reducing the number of failures to collect medication and avoiding missing appointments. Patients' confidence in the system was high. Most perceived the system to improve communication between health-care provider and patient and assist in education and motivation. The automatic recognition of questions from patients and the provision of appropriate answers (a unique feature of this system) was especially appreciated. A majority would recommend the system to other patients or healthcare centres. Risks also were mentioned, mostly by HCW, of unintentional disclosure of health status in cases where patients use shared phones.
conclusionsThe results suggest that SMS technology for HIV and TB should be used to transmit reminders for appointments, medications, motivational texts, and health education to increase retention in care. Measures must be taken to reduce risks of privacy intrusion, but these are not a main obstacle for scaling up systems of this kind.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.