Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40815834›Full record

Trial reportJMIR public health and surveillance2025

The Impact of a Mobile Money-Based Intervention on Maternal and Neonatal Health Outcomes in Madagascar: Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial.

Lisa Bogler, Bítia Vieira, Harizaka Emmanuel Andriamasy, Zavaniarivo Rampanjato, Sebastian Vollmer, Till Bärnighausen, Andriamampianina Ralisimalala, Julius Valentin Emmrich, Samuel Knauss

Abstract readRandomized Controlled Trial
In one paragraph

Trial report in JMIR public health and surveillance, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Trial
  2. Article
  3. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors.

Lisa BoglerDepartment of Economics & Centre for Modern Indian Studies, University of Goettingen, Göttingen, Germany.ORCID 0000-0002-5679-9777
Bítia VieiraGlobal Digital Last Mile Health Research Lab, Charité Center for Global Health, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany.ORCID 0009-0006-8253-7291
Harizaka Emmanuel AndriamasyGlobal Digital Last Mile Health Research Lab, Charité Center for Global Health, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany.ORCID 0009-0000-9067-353X
Zavaniarivo RampanjatoGlobal Digital Last Mile Health Research Lab, Charité Center for Global Health, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany.ORCID 0009-0006-4581-9943
Sebastian VollmerDepartment of Economics & Centre for Modern Indian Studies, University of Goettingen, Göttingen, Germany.ORCID 0000-0002-7863-0462
Till BärnighausenHeidelberg Institute of Global Health, Medical Faculty and University Hospital, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.ORCID 0000-0002-4182-4212
Andriamampianina RalisimalalaCentre d'études et de recherche en économie de la santé, Faculté d'économie, de gestion et de sociologie, University of Antananarivo, Antananarivo, Madagascar.ORCID 0009-0008-4661-1276
Julius Valentin Emmrich *Global Digital Last Mile Health Research Lab, Charité Center for Global Health, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany.ORCID 0000-0002-3393-0840
Samuel Knauss *Global Digital Last Mile Health Research Lab, Charité Center for Global Health, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany.ORCID 0000-0002-3046-9075

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundFinancial barriers to accessing obstetric care persist in many low-resource settings. With increasing use of mobile phones, mobile money services appear as a promising tool to address this concern. Maternal health care is particularly suitable for a savings program using mobile money due to the predictable timing and costs of delivery. The mobile money-based Mobile Maternal Health Wallet (MMHW) intervention aimed to ease the burden of out-of-pocket expenses related to maternal health care by providing an accessible savings tool.

objectiveThis study aimed to assess the impact of the MMHW on maternal and neonatal health outcomes.

methodsWe used a stratified cluster-randomized trial to assess the impact of the MMHW on maternal and neonatal health outcomes in the Analamanga region of Madagascar. All 63 eligible public sector primary care health facilities (Centres de Santé de Base [CSBs]) within 6 strata were randomized to either receive the intervention or not. We estimated intention-to-treat effects and contamination-adjusted effects following an instrumental variable approach. The primary outcomes included (1) delivery at a health facility, (2) antenatal care visits, and (3) total health care expenditure. Between March 2022 and December 2022, a total of 6483 women who had been pregnant between July 2020 and December 2021 were surveyed.

resultsAmong women in catchment areas of treated CSBs, 38.79% (1297/3344) had heard of the MMHW, and 37.42% (485/1296) of them registered for the tool. There was considerable variation in uptake across treated CSBs. Descriptively, women in the catchment areas of treated CSBs were more likely to deliver in a facility and had more antenatal care visits and higher total health expenditures compared to women in control CSB catchment areas in the intention-to-treat and contamination-adjusted analyses. However, none of the effects were statistically significant.

conclusionsWhile this study did not identify a statistically significant impact, the estimated contamination-adjusted effects suggest that the MMHW has potential to improve access to maternal care for women who are receptive to such a mobile money-based savings tool. Estimated population-level effects were much smaller, and this study was underpowered to detect such effects due to lower-than-anticipated uptake of the intervention.

trial registrationGerman Clinical Trials Register DRKS00014928; https://www.drks.de/search/de/trial/DRKS00014928. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): RR2-10.1186/s13063-021-05694-8.

Indexed as

Cell PhoneInfant HealthMaternal Health ServicesAdultFemaleHealth ExpendituresHumansInfant, NewbornMadagascarPregnancyPrenatal Carecluster-randomized trialhealth financinghealth walletMadagascarmaternal healthmHealthmobile healthmobile money

Identifiers

PMID40815834
PMCPMC12397756

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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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.