ArticleTuberculosis research and treatment2020
Mobile Health Technologies May Be Acceptable Tools for Providing Social Support to Tuberculosis Patients in Rural Uganda: A Parallel Mixed-Method Study.
Article in Tuberculosis research and treatment, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 2 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
20 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 33 citations in OpenAlex.
- Key requirements for developing a self-care mobile application for tuberculosis: A mixed-method approach based on systematic review and needs assessment.Scientific reports · 2026Pooled it
- Facilitators and barriers affecting the implementation of e-health for chronic respiratory diseases in remote settings: a qualitative evidence synthesis.BMC health services research · 2025Pooled it
- Co-designing eCap-CoDe: A mobile health application for primary health care-based dementia care in rural Uganda.PLOS digital health · 2026Article
- Intention to use mobile phone-based TB screening among HIV patients in Debre Tabor Town public health facilities, Northwest Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Effectiveness of Digital Health Interventions to Enhance Continuity of Care in Patients with Pulmonary Tuberculosis: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials.Patient preference and adherence · 2025Review
- Impact of a pilot mHealth intervention on treatment outcomes of TB patients seeking care in the private sector using Propensity Scores Matching-Evidence collated from New Delhi, India.PLOS digital health · 2024Article
- Appraising perception, accessibility and uptake of DAT among patients with TB.Public health action · 2024Article
- Digital Adherence Technologies Linked to Mobile Money Incentives for Medication Adherence Among People Living With Tuberculosis: Mixed Methods Feasibility and Acceptability Study.JMIR human factors · 2024Article
- Development of a customized m-Health-based intervention to reduce loss to follow-up among patients undergoing treatment for cervical lesions at a rural referral Hospital, South Western Uganda.Gynecologic oncology reports · 2024Article
- The trial of sending short message service multidrug-resistant tuberculosis patients in Indonesia: the chance to increase knowledge and motivation.Journal of public health in Africa · 2023Article
- Risk factors for poor engagement with a smart pillbox adherence intervention among persons on tuberculosis treatment in Ethiopia.BMC public health · 2023Article
- Digital Adherence Technologies and Mobile Money Incentives for Management of Tuberculosis Medication Among People Living With Tuberculosis: Mixed Methods Formative Study.JMIR formative research · 2023Article
- Social Support, Quality of Care, and Patient Adherence to Tuberculosis Treatment in Peru: The Mediating Role of Nurse Health Education.Patient preference and adherence · 2023Article
- The feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary impact of real-time monitors and SMS on tuberculosis medication adherence in southwestern Uganda: Findings from a mixed methods pilot randomized controlled trial.PLOS global public health · 2023Article
- Geographic mobility and treatment outcomes among people in care for tuberculosis in the Lake Victoria region of East Africa: A multi-site prospective cohort study.PLOS global public health · 2023Article
- Patient-centered mobile tuberculosis treatment support tools (TB-TSTs) to improve treatment adherence: A pilot randomized controlled trial exploring feasibility, acceptability and refinement needs.Lancet regional health. Americas · 2022Article
- Observational
- The Promise and Peril of Mobile Phones for Youth in Rural Uganda: Multimethod Study of Implications for Health and HIV.Journal of medical Internet research · 2021Article
- Review
- SMS reminders for monitoring tuberculosis treatment among women in Greater Accra region, Ghana.Digital healthArticle
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 at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundSocial support has been shown to mitigate social barriers to medication adherence and improve tuberculosis (TB) treatment success rates. The use of mobile technology to activate social support systems among TB patients, however, has not been well explored. Moreover, studies that tie supportive SMS (Short Message Service) texts to electronic monitoring of TB medication adherence are lacking.
objectiveTo explore TB patients' current access to social support and perceptions of utilizing real-time adherence monitoring interventions to support medication adherence.
methodsWe purposively selected TB patients who owned phones, had been taking TB medications for ≥1 month, were receiving their treatment from Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital, and reported having ≥1 social supporter. We interviewed these patients and their social supporters about their access to and perceptions of social support. We used STATA 13 to describe participants' sociodemographic and social support characteristics. Qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis to derive categories describing accessibility and perceptions.
resultsTB patients report requesting and receiving a variety of different forms of social support, including instrumental (e.g., money for transport and other needs and medication reminders), emotional (e.g., adherence counselling), and informational (e.g., medication side effects) support through mobile phones. Participants felt that SMS notifications may motivate medication adherence by creating a personal sense of obligation to take medications regularly. Participants anticipated that limited financial resources and relationship dynamics could constrain the provision of social support especially when patients and social supporters are not oriented about their expectations.
conclusionMobile telephones could provide alternative approaches to providing social support for TB medication adherence especially where patients do not stay close to their social supporters. Further efforts should focus on optimized designs of mobile phone-based applications for providing social support to TB patients and training of TB patients and social supporters to match their expectations.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.