Impact of Text Message Reminders on Caregivers’ Adherence to a Home Fortification Program Against Child Anemia in Rural Western China: A Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial
Open accessAbstract
Objectives. To test whether text message reminders sent to caregivers improve the effectiveness of a home micronutrient fortification program in western China. Methods. We carried out a cluster-randomized controlled trial in 351 villages (clusters) in Shaanxi Province in 2013 and 2014, enrolling children aged 6 to 12 months. We randomly assigned each village to 1 of 3 groups: free delivery group, text messaging group, or control group. We collected information on compliance with treatments and hemoglobin concentrations from all children at baseline and 6-month follow-up. We estimated the intent-to-treat effects on compliance and child anemia using a logistic regression model. Results. There were 1393 eligible children. We found that assignment to the text messaging group led to an increase in full compliance (marginal effect = 0.10; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.03, 0.16) compared with the free delivery group and decrease in the rate of anemia at end line relative to the control group (marginal effect = −0.07; 95% CI = −0.12, −0.01), but not relative to the free delivery group (marginal effect = −0.03; 95% CI = −0.09, 0.03). Conclusions. Text messages improved compliance of caregivers to a home fortification program and children’s nutrition.
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Health information transmitted through text messages can effectively be used to manage the treatment of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis.
“Health information transmitted through text messages can also effectively be used to manage the treatment of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis [45].”
From Barriers to the Use of Mobile Health in Improving Health Outcomes in Developing Countries: Systematic Review (2019) · cites this paper as [45]
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Zhou, H., Sun, S., Luo, R., Sylvia, S., Yue, A., Shi, Y., Zhang, L., Medina, A., & Rozelle, S.
- Affiliations
- Peking University (CN)
- Huan Zhou and Shuai Sun are with the Department of Health and Social Behavior, West China School of Public Health, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China. Renfu Luo is with the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy, School of Advanced Agricultural Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China. Sean Sylvia is with the School of Economics, Renmin University of China, Beijing. Ai Yue and Yaojiang Shi are with the Center for Experimental Economics in Education (CEEE), Shaanxi Normal University, Shaanxi,...
- Venue
- American Journal of Public Health
- Publisher
- American Public Health Association
- Published
- 2016-07
- Volume
- 106
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 1256-1262
- ISSN
- 0090-0036 (ISSN-L)
- 1541-0048
- PMC
- PMC4984765
- OpenAlex
- W2336336756
- Cited by
- 26
- References
- 37
- Citations by year
- 2025: 3 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 2
- FWCI
- 6.83
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- American Journal of Public Health (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS Institutional Repository (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Health and Family Planning Commission of the People's Republic of China
- Sichuan University
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Mobile Health and mHealth Applications
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Child Nutrition and Water Access
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › ICT in Developing Communities
- Keywords
- SMS reminders, childhood anemia, caregiver adherence, infant and young child nutrition, mobile health, hemoglobin levels, rural China, Shaanxi
- MeSH terms
- Anemia, China, Female, Hemoglobins, Humans, Infant, Iron, Male, Patient Compliance, Rural Population, Reminder Systems, Caregivers, Dietary Supplements, Cell Phone, Text Messaging
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