Home / Current Issue / Paper 1704138
Piloting an E-registry & SMS Reminder System for Routine Immunization in Kuje, FCT, Nigeria: Baseline Evaluation
Subject area: Science,Engineering and Technology · Area of research: Digital Health
Abstract
Routine immunization has remained low in Nigeria, and most of the unimmunized children are in communities where there are difficulties accessing healthcare services. Those that have access to healthcare services do not complete their vaccination doses for reasons such as lack of information, and lack of transport fare to the health facility among others. To improve immunization demand and uptake in Nigeria, we developed a web-based application that captures the child?s data and sends SMS reminders to the parents on their child?s immunization schedule. The system was developed using an iterative human-centered (HCD) approach. During the ideation phase, we conducted a baseline evaluation to further understand the reasons for RI dropout and some of the challenges faced by the caregivers in the Kuje Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria. Findings from the baseline shows that caregivers have understood the benefits of child immunization, however, the challenge of long waiting time is still a barrier to routine immunization uptake in Nigeria.
Keywords
Baseline Evaluation, mHealth, Nigeria, Routine Immunization, SMS reminder
References
[1] Antai, D. (2009). Inequitable childhood immunization uptake in Nigeria: a multilevel analysisof individual and contextual determinants.BMC infectious diseases, 9(1), 1-10.
[2] National Population Commission (NPC) [Nigeria] and ICF. (2019). Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (2018). Abuja, Nigeria, and Rockville, Maryland, USA: NPC and ICF.
[3] Obi-Jeff, C., Rakhshani, N. S., Bello-Malabu, J. I., Nwangwu, C., Nwaononiwu, E., Eboreime, E., &Wonodi, C. (2020). Vaccine indicator and reminder band to improve demand for vaccination in Northern Nigeria: A qualitative evaluation of implementation outcomes. Vaccine, 38(26), 4191-4199.
[4] Abdulraheem, I. S., Onajole, A. T., Jimoh, A. A. G., & Oladipo, A. R. (2011). Reasons for incomplete vaccination and factors for missed opportunities among rural Nigerian children.Journal of Public Health and Epidemiology, 3(4), 194-203.
[5] Abbas, A. H., & Yusof, Y. (November 2011). Children’s vaccination reminder via SMS alert.In 2011 International Conference on Research and Innovation in Information Systems (pp. 1-5). IEEE.
[6] Ibraheem, R. M., & Akintola, M. A. (2017). Acceptability of reminders for immunization appointments via mobile devices by mothers in Ilorin, Nigeria: a cross-sectional study. Oman medical journal, 32(6), 471.
[7] Baguune, B., Ndago, J. A., &Adokiya, M. N. (2017). Immunization dropout rate and data quality among children 12–23 months of age in Ghana. Archives of Public Health, 75(1), 1-8.
[8] Dunkle, S. E., Wallace, A. S., MacNeil, A., Mustafa, M., Gasasira, A., Ali, D., ... & Sandhu, H. S. (2011). Limitations of using administratively reported immunization data for monitoring routine immunization system performance in Nigeria. 2014. The Journal of infectious diseases, 210(suppl_1), S523-S530.
[9] Omoleke, S. A., & Tadesse, M. G. (2017). A pilot study of routine immunization data quality in Bunza Local Government area: causes and possible remedies. The Pan African Medical Journal, 27.
[10] Schnall, R., Rojas, M., Bakken, S., Brown, W., Carballo-Dieguez, A., Carry, M., ... & Travers, J. (2016). A user-centered model for designing consumer mobile health (mHealth) applications (apps).Journal of biomedical informatics, 60, 243-251.
[11] Gurman, T. A., Rubin, S. E., & Roess, A. A. (2012). Effectiveness of mHealth behavior change communication interventions in developing countries: a systematic review of the literature. Journal of health communication, 17(sup1), 82-104.
[12] World Health Organization (2011).mHealth New horizons for health through mobile technologies.Available from: https://www.who.int/goe/publications/goe_mhealth_web.pdf/. [Accessed August 2021]
[13] Mekonnen, Z. A., Hussien, F. N., Tilahun, B., Gelaye, K. A., &Mamuye, A. (2019). Development of an automated text-message reminder system to improve the uptake of child vaccination in Ethiopia. Online journal of public health informatics, 11(2).
[14] Direct Consulting and Logistics (2011). Evaluating SMS messaging for immunization demand generation in Nigeria: Immunization Reminder and Information SMS System (IRISS). Available from: https://dclnigeria.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/IRISS-updated-technical-brief.pdf/. [Accessed August 2021]
[15] Chan, K. C., & Tien, D. A. (2013). multi-tenant platform for SMS-integrated services.International Journal of Computer Networks & Communications, 5(6), 205.
[16] Amoakoh-Coleman, M., Borgstein, A. B. J., Sondaal, S. F., Grobbee, D. E., Miltenburg, A. S., Verwijs, M., ... & Klipstein-Grobusch, K. (2016). Effectiveness of mHealth interventions targeting health care workers to improve pregnancy outcomes in low-and middle-income countries: a systematic review. Journal of medical Internet research, 18(8), e5533.
[17] Hamine, S., Gerth-Guyette, E., Faulx, D., Green, B. B., & Ginsburg, A. S. (2015). Impact of mHealth chronic disease management on treatment adherence and patient outcomes: a systematic review. Journal of medical Internet research, 17(2), e3951.
[18] Forenbacher, I., Husnjak, S., Cvitić, I., & Jovović, I. Determinants of mobile phone ownership in Nigeria. 2019. Telecommunications Policy, 43(7), 101812.
[19] Guy André Boy (2011). Introduction: A human-centered design approach.Available from: https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/F726100E2E7D0C825CB526FD7412C48E/S2053470117000087a.pdf/humancentered_design_of_complex_systems_an_experiencebased_approach.pdf /[Accessed September 2021]
[20] Miklos Philips. The Importance of Human-centered Design in Product Design. https://www.toptal.com/designers/ux/human-centered-design/[Accessed September 2021]
[21] Forenbacher, I., Husnjak, S., Cvitić, I., & Jovović, I. (2019). Determinants of mobile phone ownership in Nigeria. 2019. Telecommunications Policy, 43(7), 101812.
How to cite this paper
@article{1704138,
author = {Winnie David, Grace Sidi, Olumide Owolabi},
title = {Piloting an E-registry & SMS Reminder System for Routine Immunization in Kuje, FCT, Nigeria: Baseline Evaluation},
journal = {Iconic Research And Engineering Journals},
year = {2023},
volume = {6},
number = {9},
pages = {22-28},
issn = {2456-8880},
url = {https://www.irejournals.com/formatedpaper/17041381.pdf},
abstract = {Routine immunization has remained low in Nigeria, and most of the unimmunized children are in communities where there are difficulties accessing healthcare services. Those that have access to healthcare services do not complete their vaccination doses for reasons such as lack of information, and lack of transport fare to the health facility among others. To improve immunization demand and uptake in Nigeria, we developed a web-based application that captures the child?s data and sends SMS reminders to the parents on their child?s immunization schedule. The system was developed using an iterative human-centered (HCD) approach. During the ideation phase, we conducted a baseline evaluation to further understand the reasons for RI dropout and some of the challenges faced by the caregivers in the Kuje Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria. Findings from the baseline shows that caregivers have understood the benefits of child immunization, however, the challenge of long waiting time is still a barrier to routine immunization uptake in Nigeria.},
keywords = {Baseline Evaluation, mHealth, Nigeria, Routine Immunization, SMS reminder},
month = {March},
}