i-MoMCARE: Innovative Mobile Technology for Maternal and Child Health Care in Cambodia—study protocol of a cluster randomized controlled trial

Trials

Study Protocol

Rattana Kim¹  Sreymom Oy²  Mengieng Ung²  Michiko Nagashima-Hayashi²  Chan Hang Saing²  Esabelle Lo Yan Yam³  Siyan Yi⁴  Vonthanak Saphonn⁵  Dyna Khuon⁵  Sovanthida Suy⁵  Chhavarath Dary⁵  Sophea Chhorn⁵  Sovatha Mam⁵ 

[1] National Maternal and Child Health Center, Phnom Penh, Cambodia;Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore and National University Health System, 12 Science Drive 2, #10-01, 117549, Singapore, Singapore;Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore and National University Health System, 12 Science Drive 2, #10-01, 117549, Singapore, Singapore;College of Health and Medicine, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia;Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore and National University Health System, 12 Science Drive 2, #10-01, 117549, Singapore, Singapore;KHANA Center for Population Health Research, Phnom Penh, Cambodia;Public Health Program, College of Education and Health Sciences, Touro University California, Vallejo, CA, USA;University of Health Sciences, Phnom Penh, Cambodia;

关键词: Community health workers;    Digital health intervention;    Maternal and child health;    Implementation research;    Low- and middle-income country;    Asia;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s13063-023-07724-z

 received in 2023-04-14, accepted in 2023-10-10,  发布年份 2023

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe Government of Cambodia established the village health support groups (VHSGs) in 2003 to facilitate primary healthcare activities, including maternal and child health (MCH) services. However, VHSGs face several challenges that hinder them from performing optimally, including a lack of regular structured training and remuneration and limited and inconsistent support and supervision from the health centers (HCs). This implementation research aims to develop, implement, and evaluate a digital health intervention to improve the performance of VHSGs through better support and supervision and increase the MCH service coverage in rural Cambodia.Methodsi-MoMCARE, a two-arm cluster randomized controlled trial, will be conducted between 2022 and 2025. Five operational districts (ODs) have been randomized to an intervention arm and the other five ODs to the control arm. The intervention will last for 24 months. Around 200 VHSGs in the intervention arm will be equipped with a mobile application as a job aid and 20 HC staff with a web interface to improve support and supervision of VHSGs. The potential beneficiaries will include pregnant women, mothers, and children under 2 years old. We will measure the outcomes at baseline and endline. The primary outcomes will consist of a composite MCH index constructed from maternal and newborn care indicators, child immunization, and treatment of under-two children. Secondary outcomes will include coverage of selected MCH services. We will conduct the intention-to-treat and per-protocol analyses. We will conduct qualitative interviews with selected beneficiaries and stakeholders to evaluate the intervention’s acceptability, feasibility, and scalability. We will also conduct a cost-effective analysis using decision-analytic modeling incorporating a societal perspective that explores different time horizons, intervention effects, and when scaled up to the national level.Discussioni-MoMCARE is expected to increase MCH service access and coverage in rural Cambodia. It will contribute to advancing digital health use in primary healthcare interventions, which remains in its infancy in the country. Furthermore, the study findings will be a valuable addition to a growing body of literature on the effectiveness and feasibility of mobile health to improve coverage of MCH services in rural low- and middle-income country settings.Trial registrationClinicalTrial.gov NCT05639595. Registered on 06 December 2022.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© BioMed Central Ltd., part of Springer Nature 2023

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