USE OF MOBILE NETWORK-BASED APPS IN HIV/AIDS TREATMENT AND COUNSELING IN ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Studies have been conducted in developing countries using short message service (SMS), mobile Apps and voice mail to communicate with patients to reduce the number of missed appointments and improve retention in treatment; however; very few have been scaled up. One possible reason for this could be that patients are dissatisfied with the method in some way. This research work presents a study on a mobile health intervention in antiretroviral therapy (ART) and tuberculosis (TB) treatment aiming to support retention of patients’ and youths vulnerable for the diseases in Ethiopia. The study was conducted at two healthcare centers in Ethiopia. Automated SMS health promotions and reminders were sent to patients in a randomized control trial (RCT). android based platform which gives information about human immune virus and sexually transmitted diseases in Amharic is developed and uploaded on App store for download. Finally, recorded voice mail reminder was forwarded to patients. A total of 89 patients and youths vulnerable to the diseases were interviewed and quationeered. Respondents rated usefulness, perceived benefits, ease of use, satisfaction, and risks of the systems using a Likert scale questionnaire. A semi-structured interview guide was followed. Interviews were transcribed, and thematic analysis was conducted. Both patients and youths found the mobile based systems useful and reliable. Most highly rated positive effects were reducing the number of failures to collect medication and avoiding missing appointments. Patients’ confidence in the system was high. Most perceived the system to improve communication between health-care provider and patient and assist in education and motivation. A majority would recommend the system to other patients or healthcare centers. Risks also were mentioned, mostly by patients, of unintentional disclosure of health status in cases where patients use shared phones. The results suggest that mobile based technology for human immune virus (HIV) and TB could be used to transmit reminders for appointments, medications, motivational texts, and health education to increase retention in care. Measures must be taken to reduce risks of privacy intrusion, but these are not the main obstacles for scaling up such a system.