Department of Global Health, University of Washington, Seattle, USA.
Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, University of Washington, Harborview Medical Center, 325 Ninth Ave., Box 359909, Seattle, WA, 98104, USA.
BMC Health Serv Res. 2019 Nov 21;19(1):870. doi: 10.1186/s12913-019-4708-7.
Short message service (SMS) presents an opportunity to expand the reach of care and improve reproductive health outcomes. SMS could increase family planning (FP) use through education, support and demand generation. The purpose of this analysis is to determine the perspectives of potential FP users to inform design of SMS.
We conducted focus group discussions (FGD) with HIV-infected women and in-depth interviews (IDI) with male partners and health care workers (HCW) at urban and rural clinics in Kenya to design SMS content for a randomized controlled trial.
Women and men indicated SMS could be used as a tool to discuss FP with their partners, and help decrease misconceptions about FP. Women stated SMS could make them more comfortable discussing sensitive topics with HCWs compared to in-person discussions. However, some women expressed concerns about FP SMS particularly if they used FP covertly or feared partner disapproval of FP use. These findings were common among women who had not disclosed their status. Providers viewed SMS as an important tool for tracking patients and clinical triage in conjunction with routine clinical visits.
Our findings suggest that SMS has the potential to facilitate FP education, counselling, and interaction with HCWs around FP.
短信息服务（SMS）为扩大医疗服务范围和改善生殖健康结果提供了机会。SMS 可以通过教育、支持和需求创造来增加计划生育（FP）的使用。本分析的目的是确定潜在 FP 用户的观点，为 SMS 的设计提供信息。
我们在肯尼亚的城市和农村诊所进行了焦点小组讨论（FGD）和深入访谈（IDI），与 HIV 感染者女性以及男性伴侣和卫生保健工作者（HCW）进行了访谈，为一项随机对照试验设计了 SMS 内容。
女性和男性表示，SMS 可以作为与伴侣讨论 FP 的工具，并有助于减少对 FP 的误解。女性表示，与面对面讨论相比，SMS 可以让她们更舒适地与 HCW 讨论敏感话题。然而，一些女性对 FP SMS 表示担忧，特别是如果她们秘密使用 FP 或担心伴侣反对 FP 使用。这些发现在未透露其身份的女性中很常见。提供者认为 SMS 是一种重要的工具，可以与常规临床就诊一起用于跟踪患者和临床分诊。
我们的研究结果表明，SMS 有可能促进 FP 教育、咨询以及与 FP 相关的 HCW 互动。
