Utilization of Mobile Phone Reminder in Improving the Completeness and Timeliness of Routine Childhood Immunization among Mothers in Kano Metropolis: A Baseline Study

Abstract

Mobile phone technology has shown great potentials in health interventions. With the large number of children in Northern Nigeria not being vaccinated with all age appropriate vaccines, mobile phone technology can be leveraged upon to improve routine childhood immunization outcomes in the region.  Purpose: This baseline study was conducted to assess the feasibility and recruit appropriate participants for a clustered randomized controlled trial on the effect of utilization of mobile phone reminder in improving the completeness and timeliness of routine childhood immunization among mothers in Kano Metropolis.  Methods: Mothers who recently gave birth, have access to mobile phone and willing to receive mobile phone reminder (text messages/calls) were continuously screened until a total of 554 of them were recruited from four (4) health care facilities within Kano Metropolis. Two of the selected facilities were randomly allocated to the intervention and control groups each.  All statistical data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings from the study showed that more than half of the study participants in both the intervention (54.2%) and control (64.0%) group prefer to receive the reminders on immunization of their children in English Language.  While majority of participants in the intervention group prefer to be reminded through SMS and phone calls (57.5%), more than half of participants in the control group (55.9%) prefer to be reminded through SMS only. All participants in the intervention group agree to be called and asked about the immunization status of their children. The study concludes that the study is feasible as all the study participants have access to mobile phones and are willing to receive reminders. There is however a participant’s preference of English Language and combination of SMS and phone call to be used in sending the reminders. It is recommended that future studies be conducted in rural areas to compare feasibility with that of the urban setting.