Fongwen Noah T, Nchafack Almighty, Tetuh Kyeng M, Ong Jason J, Tucker Joseph D, Hughes Gwenda, Peeling Rosanna
Department of Diagnostics Access, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Department of Clinical Research, Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom.
J Public Health Afr. 2024 Jul 23;15(1):608. doi: 10.4102/jphia.v15i1.608. eCollection 2024.
Mobile health interventions like telephone hotlines face challenges that may threaten their use, adoption and sustainability in Africa.
We sought to understand the barriers and facilitators for sustainability of telephone hotlines used in infectious disease outbreaks in Africa using a scoping review and a qualitative study.
Participants form 12 African countries and Database searches.
Databases were searched for articles on the barriers and/or facilitators in operating telephone hotlines for outbreaks in Africa. One-on-one interviews and focus group discussions with 30 participants from 12 African countries were also conducted. Emerging themes from the review and interviews were identified and synthesised to focus on barriers and facilitators for the sustainability of the hotlines.
The search identified 1153 citations, and 25 studies were finally included. The articles were from 20 African countries. The government was the main source of funding in four countries. Barriers with calls and data management were the most frequent. Human resource barriers such as limited staff, high staff turnover, a lack of incentives and motivation were also significant. Financial barriers were the high cost of operation and huge dependence on external funders. Technological and infrastructural hurdles included limited Internet and phone coverage, malfunction and a lack of interoperability of software. Transitioning to either complete or shared government ownership with diversification and integration of the hotline into routine use was the main facilitator for sustainability.
Strengthening technical capacity in telephone hotlines and ensuring financial sustainability are critical. Increased government support is needed.
More studies on costing will help in developing financial sustainability models for Africa.
诸如电话热线之类的移动健康干预措施在非洲面临着可能威胁其使用、采用和可持续性的挑战。
我们试图通过范围综述和定性研究来了解非洲传染病疫情中使用的电话热线可持续性的障碍和促进因素。
来自12个非洲国家的参与者和数据库搜索。
在数据库中搜索有关非洲疫情中运营电话热线的障碍和/或促进因素的文章。还对来自12个非洲国家的30名参与者进行了一对一访谈和焦点小组讨论。确定并综合了综述和访谈中出现的主题，以关注热线可持续性的障碍和促进因素。
搜索共识别出1153条引文，最终纳入25项研究。这些文章来自20个非洲国家。在四个国家，政府是主要资金来源。通话和数据管理方面的障碍最为常见。人力资源方面的障碍，如工作人员有限、人员流动率高、缺乏激励措施和动力，也很显著。财务障碍包括运营成本高和严重依赖外部资助者。技术和基础设施方面的障碍包括互联网和电话覆盖有限、软件故障以及缺乏互操作性。向完全或共享政府所有权过渡，同时实现热线的多样化和融入日常使用，是可持续性的主要促进因素。
加强电话热线的技术能力和确保财务可持续性至关重要。需要政府加大支持力度。
更多关于成本核算的研究将有助于为非洲制定财务可持续性模式。
