Ngo Anh, Nguyen Van Thi, Phan Ha, Pham Van, Ngo Cuong, Nguyen Linh, Ha Toan
Center for Promotion of Advance of Society, Hanoi, Vietnam.
US News and World Report, Washington, DC, USA.
Mhealth. 2023 Jan 28;9:3. doi: 10.21037/mhealth-22-41. eCollection 2023.
BACKGROUND: Mobile health (mHealth) has been used to promote sexual and reproductive health (SRH) education and services; however, little is known about the use of mHealth to improve safe abortion knowledge and access to safe abortion services among female sex workers (FSWs). This study evaluated the feasibility and effectiveness of intervention through changes in knowledge on safe abortion and changes in perceived barriers to safe abortion services among FSWs in Vietnam. METHODS: mobile app was developed as an interactive platform to deliver safe abortion education and referral to safe abortion services through short messaging services (SMS) enhanced by tele-counseling for 512 FSWs in Hanoi, Vietnam. A pretest-posttest evaluation was conducted using questionnaire-based phone interviews administered to 251 participants at baseline and 3 months following the intervention. Non-parametric tests evaluated the change in abortion knowledge, behaviors, and perceived barriers to safe abortion. RESULTS: There were significant improvements in the knowledge on safe abortion among the study participants. Specifically, FSWs' knowledge of correct gestational ages (≤22 weeks) for medical abortion increased from 78.9% at baseline to 96.8% (P=0.001). Knowledge of correct gestational ages for medical abortion at the private clinic increased from 45.3% to 63.1% (P=0.001). Knowledge on the consequences of unsafe abortion increased from 75.2% to 92.1% (P=0.001). In addition, perceived stigma and discrimination when seeking safe abortion decreased from 36.5% to 27.8% (P=0.036) and worry about the lack of confidentiality decreased from 23.3% to 15.5% (P=0.035). CONCLUSIONS: The evaluation results showed the initial effectiveness of a mobile app-based intervention in improving access to safe abortion information and services among FSWs. A future study is needed to establish the efficacy of the intervention for scaling up in Vietnam and elsewhere.
背景:移动健康(mHealth)已被用于促进性与生殖健康(SRH)教育及服务;然而,关于利用移动健康改善女性性工作者(FSW)的安全堕胎知识及获得安全堕胎服务的情况,人们了解甚少。本研究通过越南女性性工作者安全堕胎知识的变化以及对安全堕胎服务感知障碍的变化,评估了一项干预措施的可行性和有效性。 方法:开发了一款移动应用程序作为互动平台,通过短信服务(SMS)提供安全堕胎教育,并通过电话咨询为越南河内的512名女性性工作者转介安全堕胎服务。采用基于问卷的电话访谈对251名参与者在基线时和干预后3个月进行了前后测评估。非参数检验评估了堕胎知识、行为以及对安全堕胎感知障碍的变化。 结果:研究参与者在安全堕胎知识方面有显著改善。具体而言,女性性工作者对药物流产正确孕周(≤22周)的知晓率从基线时的78.9%提高到了96.8%(P = 0.001)。对私人诊所药物流产正确孕周的知晓率从45.3%提高到了63.1%(P = 0.001)。对不安全堕胎后果的知晓率从75.2%提高到了92.1%(P = 0.001)。此外,寻求安全堕胎时感知到的耻辱和歧视从36.5%降至27.8%(P = 0.036),对缺乏保密性的担忧从23.3%降至15.5%(P = 0.035)。 结论:评估结果显示了基于移动应用程序的干预措施在改善女性性工作者获得安全堕胎信息和服务方面的初步效果。未来需要开展研究以确定该干预措施在越南及其他地区扩大规模的效果。
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