TY - JOUR
T1 - Prospects of mHealth services in Bangladesh
T2 - Recent evidence from Chakaria
AU - Khatun, Fatema
AU - Hanifi, S. M.A.
AU - Iqbal, Mohammad
AU - Rasheed, Sabrina
AU - Rahman, M. Shafiqur
AU - Ahmed, Tanvir
AU - Hoque, Shahidul
AU - Sharmin, Tamanna
AU - Khan, Nazib Uz Zaman
AU - Mahmood, Shehrin Shaila
AU - Peters, David H.
AU - Bhuiya, Abbas
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 Khatun et al.
PY - 2014/11/6
Y1 - 2014/11/6
N2 - Results: Household ownership of mobile phones in the study area has increased from 2% in 2004 to 81% in 2012;45% of the respondents reported that they had mobile phones. Thirty-one percent of the respondents were aware of the use of mobile phones for healthcare. Very few people were aware of the available mHealth services. Males, younger age group, better educated, and those from richer households were more knowledgeable about the existing mHealth services. Among the respondents who sought healthcare in the preceding two weeks of the survey, only 2% used mobile phones for healthcare. Adherence to the advice from the healthcare providers in terms of purchasing and taking the drugs was somewhat similar between the patients who used mobile phone for consultation versus making a physical visit.Conclusions: The high penetration of mobile phones into the society provides a unique opportunity to use the mHealth technology for consulting healthcare providers. Although knowledge of the existence of mHealth services was low, it was encouraging that the compliance with the prescriptions was almost similar for advice received through mobile phone and physical visits. The study revealed clear indications that society is looking forward to embracing the mHealth technology.Methods: A total of 4,915 randomly-chosen respondents aged 18 years and above were interviewed.Introduction: Bangladesh has a serious shortage of qualified health workforce. The limited numbers of trained service providers are based in urban areas, which limits access to quality healthcare for the rural population. mHealth provides a new opportunity to ensure access to quality services to the population. A recent review suggested that there are 19 mHealth initiatives in the country. This paper reports findings on people's knowledge, perception, use, cost and compliance with advice received from mHealth services from a study carried out during 2012-13 in Chakaria, a rural sub-district in Bangladesh.
AB - Results: Household ownership of mobile phones in the study area has increased from 2% in 2004 to 81% in 2012;45% of the respondents reported that they had mobile phones. Thirty-one percent of the respondents were aware of the use of mobile phones for healthcare. Very few people were aware of the available mHealth services. Males, younger age group, better educated, and those from richer households were more knowledgeable about the existing mHealth services. Among the respondents who sought healthcare in the preceding two weeks of the survey, only 2% used mobile phones for healthcare. Adherence to the advice from the healthcare providers in terms of purchasing and taking the drugs was somewhat similar between the patients who used mobile phone for consultation versus making a physical visit.Conclusions: The high penetration of mobile phones into the society provides a unique opportunity to use the mHealth technology for consulting healthcare providers. Although knowledge of the existence of mHealth services was low, it was encouraging that the compliance with the prescriptions was almost similar for advice received through mobile phone and physical visits. The study revealed clear indications that society is looking forward to embracing the mHealth technology.Methods: A total of 4,915 randomly-chosen respondents aged 18 years and above were interviewed.Introduction: Bangladesh has a serious shortage of qualified health workforce. The limited numbers of trained service providers are based in urban areas, which limits access to quality healthcare for the rural population. mHealth provides a new opportunity to ensure access to quality services to the population. A recent review suggested that there are 19 mHealth initiatives in the country. This paper reports findings on people's knowledge, perception, use, cost and compliance with advice received from mHealth services from a study carried out during 2012-13 in Chakaria, a rural sub-district in Bangladesh.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84910611621&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84910611621&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0111413
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0111413
M3 - Article
C2 - 25375255
AN - SCOPUS:84910611621
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 9
JO - PloS one
JF - PloS one
IS - 11
M1 - e111413
ER -