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Introduction: every 90 seconds, a woman dies of complications related to pregnancy and childbirth, resulting in more than 340,000 maternal deaths a year. Antenatal care (ANC) and postnatal care (PNC) are significant determinants of maternal health and, particularly, safe motherhood. Antenatal care is an important predictor of safe delivery and provides health information and services that can improve the health of women and infants. mHealth broadly encompasses the use of mobile telecommunication and multimedia technologies as they are integrated within increasingly mobile and wireless health care delivery systems. This study aimed at assessing the acceptable implementation modalities of mHealth intervention on pregnant Women in Dschang health district, West Region of Cameroon.ng ba. Methods: this was a cross sectional descriptive study in the Dschang health district, West region of Cameroon. Key informants were all pregnant women from 18 years and above and a total of 372 pregnant women were included. This study was carried out from March to July 2017. Results: majority of the women, that is, 252(67.74%) were married, 117(31.45%) declaredtheir status as being single, while 3(0.81%) were devorced. Out of the 335 women that declared wanting an mHealth intervention, 41.79% of this number preferred SMS texts in the afternoon, 111(33.13%) in the evening, 46(13.73%) anytime and 38(11.34%) in the morning hours. A total of 83.33% women confirmed using telephone services. Conclusion: this study reveals that cell phones would be the acceptable medium of providing pregnancy and postpartum support to women in the Dschang health district. This is justified by the fact that a vast majority of women interviewed had access to a cell phone and referred to it as their desired and accepted means of communication.
Study design: this was a cross sectional descriptive study. Study area: the Dschang health district, West region of Cameroon. Inclusion criterion: pregnant women, with the minimum 18 years old who gave their consent to participate in the study. Exclusion criteria: pregnant women with less than 18 years and pregnant women who did not give consent to participate in the study; pregnant women who refuse to continue participating in the study after consent (inconvenient questions). Sample size: sample size was determined using the Fisher’s formula; N = minimum sample size, Z = Z–value corresponding to 95% confidence interval (1.96), P = The acceptable implementation modalities of mHealth intervention on Pregnant Women in Dschang Health district, West Region of Cameroon is not known; hence 50% will be used, e = error margin (0.05). Therefore, N= 1.96²*0.05 (1-0.05)/0.05² N=372. From the calculation, the minimum sample size is 372 pregnant women to be included. Sampling methods: the recruitment centre was the Dschang health district Hospital. This choice was made out of convenience because they account for the greatest number of prenatal consultations in the Dschang health district. Investigators interviewed all eligible women who had consented to participate in the study until the minimum sample size number was reached. Data collection and analyses: the data were collected with the use of questionnaires, pretested by some 15 female students in the department of Public Health of the university of Dschang, and made available in English (original language which the questionnaire was designed) and translated into French by a final year master’s student in Bilingual Letters of the University of Dschang. This questionnaire was adapted from a previous study by Cormick and colleagues in Argentina and the main question was on modalities of mHealth intervention on pregnant Women [9]. They wereorally administered by the investigator after prenatal consultations had been done with the selected women who had consented to participate in the study. The period of data collection was one month, one week (from the 30th of May to the 7th of July 2017), and was done in the Dschang district hospital. There are pre organised sessions of prenatal consultations on every Mondays, so, special emphasis and mobilisation was done every Monday to administer questionnaires to pregnant women. Sampling was performed by convenience. Investigators recruited all eligible women who consented to participate until the minimum sample size number was reached. The questionnaires were then coded and entered in EPI Info 7.1.3.3 and thus analysed. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were used. Data quality assessment: questionnaires were checked by the principal investigator for completeness on a daily basis by immediate supervisors. After checking for consistency and completeness, the supervisor submitted the filled questionnaire to the principal investigator. Incorrectly filled or missed ones were sent back to respective data collectors for correction. The principal investigator again rechecked the completed questionnaires to maintain the quality of data. Ethical considerations: given the fact that this research involved humans (participants, investigator, data collectors), ethical consideration was mandatory. In this light, ethical clearance was obtained from the National Ethical Committee in Yaoundé (Ref: 446/17). Potential risk minimization: the participants of this research (community individuals of all ages) have some potential risk link to this study which includes: violation of autonomy, rupture of confidentiality on the private data with regards to participants, exploitation of participants and inequality in risk/benefit ratio and also rupture of social equilibrium in the community. Such potential risks were minimized by all the information mentioned in the information notice. These risks were minimized in the following ways: administering Informed Consent to participants before administering questionnaire; Respecting the autonomy of participants; The data collection tool (questionnaire) were anonymous, and access to data was restricted only to those concerned, physical and electronic barriers; Electronic data were stored in an apple cloud account accessible only to the principal investigator and the physical questionnaires burned after verification of data; Permission was obtained both from the District administration and the hospital administration.
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