Coleman Jesse, Eriksen Jaran, Black Vivian, Thorson Anna, Hatcher Abigail
Wits Reproductive Health & HIV Institute, School of Medicine, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
JMIR Hum Factors. 2020 Jun 29;7(2):e14078. doi: 10.2196/14078.
Using mobile technology to support health care (mobile health [mHealth]) has been shown to improve health outcomes across a multitude of health specialties and across the world. Exploring mHealth user experiences can aid in understanding how and why an intervention was successful. The Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action (MAMA) was a free maternal mHealth SMS text messaging service that was offered to pregnant women in Johannesburg, South Africa, with the goal of improving maternal, fetal, and infant health outcomes. We conducted focus group discussions with MAMA users to learn about their experiences with the program.
The aim of this qualitative study was to gather opinions of participants of the MAMA maternal mHealth service regarding health care atmosphere, intervention use, and intervention feedback.
Prenatal and postnatal women (N=15) from public antenatal and postnatal care sites in central Johannesburg who were receiving free maternal health text messages (MAMA) participated in 3 focus group discussions. Predefined discussion topics included personal background, health care system experiences, MAMA program recruitment, acceptability, participant experiences, and feedback.
The feedback regarding experiences with the health system were comprised of a few reports of positive experiences and many more reports of negative experiences such as long wait times, understaffed facilities, and poor service. Overall acceptability for the maternal text message intervention was high. Participants reflected that the messages were timely, written clearly, and felt supportive. Participants also reported sharing messages with friends and family.
These findings suggest that maternal mHealth interventions delivered through text messages can provide timely, relevant, useful, and supportive information to pregnant women and new mothers especially in settings where there may be mistrust of the health care system.
利用移动技术支持医疗保健（移动医疗[mHealth]）已被证明能在全球众多医疗专业领域改善健康状况。探索移动医疗用户体验有助于理解一项干预措施成功的方式及原因。孕产妇行动移动联盟（MAMA）是一项免费的孕产妇移动医疗短信服务，面向南非约翰内斯堡的孕妇提供，旨在改善孕产妇、胎儿和婴儿的健康状况。我们与MAMA用户进行了焦点小组讨论，以了解他们对该项目的体验。
这项定性研究的目的是收集MAMA孕产妇移动医疗服务参与者对医疗保健氛围、干预措施使用情况及干预反馈的意见。
来自约翰内斯堡市中心公共产前和产后护理点、正在接收免费孕产妇健康短信（MAMA）的产前和产后妇女（N = 15）参加了3次焦点小组讨论。预定义的讨论主题包括个人背景、医疗保健系统体验、MAMA项目招募情况、可接受性、参与者体验及反馈。
关于医疗系统体验的反馈包括一些正面体验报告，但更多的是负面体验报告，如等待时间长、设施人员不足和服务差等。孕产妇短信干预措施的总体可接受性较高。参与者反映短信及时、表述清晰且令人感到支持。参与者还报告说会与朋友和家人分享这些短信。
这些发现表明，通过短信提供的孕产妇移动医疗干预措施可以为孕妇和新妈妈提供及时、相关、有用且具有支持性的信息，尤其是在可能对医疗保健系统不信任的环境中。
