Trial reportJournal of global health2019
Clinical evaluation of the use of an mhealth intervention on quality of care provided by Community Health Workers in southwest Niger.
Trial report in Journal of global health, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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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
10 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Digital patient safety interventions in primary care: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Systematic review of performance-enhancing health worker supervision approaches in low- and middle-income countries.Human resources for health · 2022Pooled it
- Community health worker-based mobile health (mHealth) approaches for improving management and caregiver knowledge of common childhood infections: A systematic review.Journal of global health · 2020Pooled it
- The evolution of supportive supervision in low- and middle-income countries.BMC global and public health · 2026Review
- Information and Communication Technology to Enhance the Implementation of the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Mayo Clinic proceedings. Digital health · 2024Review
- Improving community health worker treatment for malaria, diarrhoea, and pneumonia in Uganda through inSCALE community and mHealth innovations: A cluster randomised controlled trial.PLOS digital health · 2023Article
- Healthcare Workers' Perspectives of mHealth Adoption Factors in the Developing World: Scoping Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Observational
- The role of governance in implementing sustainable global health interventions: review of health system integration for integrated community case management (iCCM) of childhood illnesses.BMJ global health · 2021Review
- Cross-cultural adaptation and psychometric properties of the Herth Hope Index in Kinyarwanda: adapting a positive psychosocial tool for healthcare recipients and providers in the Rwandan setting.Health and quality of life outcomes · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundUnder 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
methodsA two-arm cluster randomized trial was conducted from March to October 2016 in Dosso and Doutchi districts. The intervention arm comprised 66 RCom equipped with a smartphone and 64 in the paper-based control arm. Trained expert clinicians observed each RCom assessing sick children presenting to them (264 in intervention group; 256 in control group), re-assessed each child on the same set of parameters, and made further observations regarding perceptions of motivation, retention, supervision, drug management and caregiver satisfaction. The primary outcome was a QoC score composed of diagnostic and treatment variables. Other factors were assessed by questionnaires.
resultsOn average, the mHealth equipped RCom showed a 3.4% higher QoC score (mean difference of 0.83 points). They were more likely to ask about the main danger signs: convulsions (69.7% vs 50.4%,
conclusionsResults suggest that use of the mHealth application led to modestly improved QoC through better assessment of the sick children and better referral decisions by RCom, but not to improvement in the actual treatment of malaria, pneumonia and diarrhea. Considering mHealth's additional costs and logistics, questions around its viability remain. Further implementation could be improved by investing in RCom capacity building, building organization culture and strengthened supervision, all essential areas for improving any CHW program. In this real-world setting, in poor and remote communities in rural Niger, this study did not support the overall value of the mHealth intervention. Much was learned for any future mHealth interventions and scale-up.
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