The DOI matches its Crossref record; 27 of the 27 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Meet us on the phone: mobile phone programs for adolescent sexual and reproductive health in low-to-middle income countries
Open accessAbstract
INTRODUCTION: mHealth as a technical area has seen increasing interest and promise from both developed and developing countries. While published research from higher income countries on mHealth solutions for adolescent sexual and reproductive health (SRH) is growing, there is much less documentation of SRH mHealth interventions for youth living in resource-poor settings. We conducted a global landscape analysis to answer the following research question: How are programs using mHealth interventions to improve adolescent SRH in low to middle income countries (LMICs)? METHODS: To obtain the latest information about mHealth programs targeting youth SRH, a global call for project resources was issued in 2014. Information about approximately 25 projects from LMICs was submitted. These projects were reviewed to confirm that mobile phones were utilized as a key communication media for the program, that youth ages 10-24 were a prime target audience, and that the program used mobile phone features beyond one-on-one phone calls between youth and health professionals. RESULTS: A total of 17 projects met our inclusion criteria. Most of these projects were based in Africa (67%), followed by Eurasia (26%) and Latin America (13%). The majority of projects used mHealth as a health promotion tool (82%) to facilitate knowledge sharing and behavior change to improve youth SRH. Other projects (18%) used mHealth as a way to link users to essential SRH services, including family planning counseling and services, medical abortion and post-abortion care, and HIV care and treatment. There was little variation in delivery methods for SRH content, as two-thirds of the projects (70%) relied on text messaging to transmit SRH information to youth. Several projects have been adapted and scaled to other countries. DISCUSSION: Findings suggest that mHealth interventions are becoming a more common method to connect youth to SRH information and services in LMICs, and evidence is emerging that mobile phones are an effective way to reach young people and to achieve knowledge and behavior change. More understanding is needed about the challenges of data privacy and phone access, especially among younger adolescents, and the role that mHealth solutions for adolescent SRH should play in health programming for young people.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“SMS with or without phone calls and voice messages was the second highest with a frequency of 4 of 26 interventions (15%) [22,32,39,53].”
From Barriers to the Use of Mobile Health in Improving Health Outcomes in Developing Countries: Systematic Review (2019) · cites this paper as [32]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredIn the citing paper
“Among the articles analyzed, maternal health was the most prevalent health outcome with a frequency of 9 out of the 30 articles (30%) [27-35].”
From Barriers to the Use of Mobile Health in Improving Health Outcomes in Developing Countries: Systematic Review (2019) · cites this paper as [32]
In the citing paper
“SMS reminders also improve appointment attendance and SMS text messaging helps health care providers prescribe medicine on a timely basis, consequently improving patient care [32,39].”
From Barriers to the Use of Mobile Health in Improving Health Outcomes in Developing Countries: Systematic Review (2019) · cites this paper as [32]
In the citing paper
“SMS reminders also improve appointment attendance and SMS text messaging helps health care providers prescribe medicine on a timely basis, consequently improving patient care [32,39].”
From Barriers to the Use of Mobile Health in Improving Health Outcomes in Developing Countries: Systematic Review (2019) · cites this paper as [32]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Mobile Text Messaging for Health: A Systematic Review of Reviews
Hall, A. K., Cole-Lewis, H., & Bernhardt, J. M. (2015) · Annual Review of Public Health · doi:10.1146/annurev-publhealth-031914-122855 · Cited by 815
Contraception for adolescents in low and middle income countries: needs, barriers, and access
Chandra‐Mouli, V., McCarraher, D. R., Phillips, S. J., Williamson, N. E., & Hainsworth, G. (2014) · Reproductive Health · doi:10.1186/1742-4755-11-1 · Cited by 688
Aranda-Jan, C. B., Mohutsiwa-Dibe, N., & Loukanova, S. (2014) · BMC Public Health · doi:10.1186/1471-2458-14-188 · Cited by 644
Zurovac, D., Sudoi, R. K., Akhwale, W. S., Ndiritu, M., Hamer, D. H., Rowe, A. K., & Snow, R. W. (2011) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(11)60783-6 · Cited by 403
McDaid, L. M., Parkes, A., Wight, D., Petticrew, M. P., & Hart, G. J. (2009) · Reproductive Health · doi:10.1186/1742-4755-6-3 · Cited by 374
Gurman, T. A., Rubin, S. E., & Roess, A. A. (2012) · Journal of Health Communication · doi:10.1080/10810730.2011.649160 · Cited by 331
(2006) · Technical Report Series 936 · Cited by 285
Biddlecom, A., Munthali, A., Singh, S. D., & Woog, V. (2007) · African Journal of Reproductive Health · doi:10.2307/25549734 · Cited by 239
SEXINFO: A Sexual Health Text Messaging Service for San Francisco Youth
Levine, D., McCright, J., Dobkin, L., Woodruff, A. J., & Klausner, J. D. (2008) · American Journal of Public Health · doi:10.2105/ajph.2007.110767 · Cited by 228
Short Message Service (SMS) Applications for Disease Prevention in Developing Countries
Déglise, C., Suggs, L. S., & Odermatt, P. (2012) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/jmir.1823 · Cited by 206
Research works printed but not linked: 5
- Pew Research Center. Emerging Nations Embrace Internet, Mobile Technology [Internet]. Washington, D.C: Pew Research Center; 2014. Available from: http://www.pewglobal.org/2014/02/13/emerging-nations-embrace-internet-mobile-technology/ .
- WHO and the Implementing Best Practices Initiative. Family planning high impact practice list [Internet]. 2015. Available from: https://www.fphighimpactpractices.org/sites/fphips/files/hiplist_eng.pdf . [cited 2015 Nov 2].
- Marie Stopes International. eVouchers in Ethiopia Using mobile phones to increase young people’s access to contraception [Internet]. 2013. cited 2016 August 31.
- One World. Bila7araje Morocco [Internet]. 2013. cited 2016 August 31.
- Center for Health Market Innovations. MSI Papua New Guinea [Internet]. 2016. cited 2016 August 31.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Starrs, A. M., Ezeh, A. C., Barker, G., Basu, A., Bertrand, J. T., Blum, R., Coll-Seck, A. M., Grover, A., Laski, L., Roa, M., et al. (2018) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(18)30293-9 · Cited by 1,598
Kruse, C., Betancourt, J., Ortiz, S., Valdes Luna, S. M., Bamrah, I. K., & Segovia, N. (2019) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/13263 · Cited by 299
Mobile Health (mHealth) in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
McCool, J., Dobson, R., Whittaker, R., & Paton, C. (2022) · Annual Review of Public Health · doi:10.1146/annurev-publhealth-052620-093850 · Cited by 269
Anstey Watkins, J. O. T., Goudge, J., Gómez-Olivé, F. X., & Griffiths, F. (2018) · Social Science & Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.01.011 · Cited by 196
“sexual and reproductive health (Ippoliti and L'Engle, 2017) (mostly from African contexts) agree that mHealth is effective in reaching patients; however, data privacy and phone access are limiting factors.”
BackgroundPoteat, T., Ackerman, B., Diouf, D., Ceesay, N., Mothopeng, T., Ky‐Zerbo, O., Kouanda, S., Ouédraogo, H. G., Anato, S., Kouamé, A., et al. (2017) · PLoS Medicine · doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1002422 · Cited by 183
Metadata
- Authors
- Ippoliti, N. B., & L’Engle, K.
- Affiliations
- Family Health International 360 (US)
- University of San Francisco (US)
- Corresponding author
- Ippoliti, Nicole B.
- ORCID
- L’Engle, Kelly
- Venue
- Reproductive Health
- Published
- 2017-01-17
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 11-11
- ISSN
- 1742-4755 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5240300
- OpenAlex
- W2578235895
- Cited by
- 163
- References
- 27
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 20 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 27 · 2021: 27 · 2020: 19 · 2019: 20 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 2
- FWCI
- 2.55
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Reproductive Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- USF Scholarship Repository (University of San Francisco) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- United States Agency for International Development (#AID-OAA-A-13-00068)
- World Health Organization
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Mobile Health and mHealth Applications
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health
- Social Sciences › Health › Social Media in Health Education
- Keywords
- mobile health, adolescent sexual and reproductive health, mobile phone intervention, low- and middle-income countries, text messaging, health promotion, behavior change, contraceptive counseling, abortion pills, post-abortion care, HIV care and treatment, youth health care, data privacy, program scaling
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent Health, Adolescent, Health Promotion, Humans, Poverty, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Safe Sex, Cell Phone, Reproductive Health
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
