ArticleReproductive health2020
Evaluating the effect of maternal mHealth text messages on uptake of maternal and child health care services in South Africa: a multicentre cohort intervention study.
Article in Reproductive health, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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
25 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Impact of measles vaccination strategies on vaccination rates in low-income and middle-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMJ global health · 2025Pooled it
- Impact of mHealth interventions on maternal, newborn, and child health from conception to 24 months postpartum in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review.BMC medicine · 2024Pooled it
- The effect of mHealth on childhood vaccination in Africa: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PloS one · 2024Pooled it
- Short message service (SMS) reminders for childhood immunisation in low-income and middle-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMJ global health · 2021Pooled it
- The effect of mHealth application on improving childhood immunization coverage and timeliness: a case of the Gurage Zone, SNNPR, Ethiopia, a randomized controlled trial.BMC public health · 2025Trial
- A Tailored mHealth Intervention for Improving Antenatal Care Seeking and Its Determinants Among Pregnant Adolescent Girls and Young Women in South Africa: Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2025Trial
- Trial
- Effect of Receiving Text Messages on Health Care Behavior and State Anxiety of Thai Pregnant Women: A Randomized Controlled Trial.International journal of community based nursing and midwifery · 2022Trial
- Effect of Mobile Phone Text Message Reminders on the Completion and Timely Receipt of Routine Childhood Vaccinations: Superiority Randomized Controlled Trial in Northwest Ethiopia.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2021Trial
- Data science and artificial intelligence for maternal, newborn and child health: scoping review and thematic analysis.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Article
- A scoping review of digital technologies in antenatal care: recent progress and applications of digital technologies.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2025Article
- Article
- Mobile health interventions on vaccination coverage among children under 5 years of age in Low and Middle-Income countries; a scoping review.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Mapping the Role of Digital Health Interventions to Enhance Effective Coverage of Antenatal Care: A Scoping Review.Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare · 2024Article
- Article
- Digital Health Interventions to Improve Access to and Quality of Primary Health Care Services: A Scoping Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Article
- Cost-effectiveness of a direct to beneficiary mobile communication programme in improving reproductive and child health outcomes in India.BMJ global health · 2023Article
- Technology-Based (Mhealth) and Standard/Traditional Maternal Care for Pregnant Woman: A Systematic Literature Review.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThere are high expectations that mobile health (mHealth) strategies will increase uptake of health care services, especially in resource strained settings. Our study aimed to evaluate effects of an mHealth intervention on uptake of maternal health services.
methodsThis was an intervention cohort study conducted at six public antenatal and postnatal care clinics in inner-city Johannesburg, South Africa. The intervention consisted of twice-weekly informative and pregnancy stage-based maternal health information text messages sent to women during pregnancy until their child was one year of age. The intervention arm of 87 mother-infant pairs was compared to a control arm of 90 pairs. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to compare the probability of the outcome between the two groups.
resultsIntervention participants had higher odds of attending all government-recommended antenatal and postnatal visits, all recommended first year vaccinations (OR: 3.2, 95% CI 1.63-6.31) and had higher odds of attending at least the recommended four antenatal visits (OR: 3.21, 95% CI 1.73-5.98).
conclusionWe show an improvement in achieving complete maternal-infant continuum of care, providing evidence of a positive impact of informative maternal mHealth messages sent to pregnant women and new mothers. Trial registration ISRCTN, ISRCTN41772986. Registered 13 February 2019-Retrospectively registered, https://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN41772986.
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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.