BackgroundAdequate antenatal care is important to both the health of a pregnant woman and her unborn baby. Given South Africa’s high rate of cellphone penetration, mobile health interventions have been touted as a potentially powerful means to disseminate health information. This study aimed to increase antenatal health knowledge and awareness by disseminating text messages about clinic procedures at antenatal visits, and how to be healthy during pregnancy.MethodsParticipants recruited were pregnant women attending a primary health care facility in Cape Town. A controlled clinical trial was carried out where the intervention group (n = 102) received text messages staggered according to the week of pregnancy at the time of recruitment. The control group (n = 104) received no text messages. These text messages contained antenatal health information, and were delivered in English, Xhosa or Afrikaans, according to the preference of each participant. A baseline knowledge questionnaire with nine questions was administered prior to the intervention. The same questionnaire was used with added health-related behaviour questions for the intervention group at exit. A modified intention-to-treat analysis was done. To compare the control and intervention group’s knowledge, Fisher’s exact tests and two-sample t-tests tests were carried out for binary and continuous outcomes, respectively. A focus group of seven participants from the intervention group was then conducted to gain more insight into how the text messages were perceived.ResultsThere was substantial loss to follow-up during the study with only 57% of the participants retained at exit. No statistically significant difference was detected between the control and intervention group in any of the nine knowledge questions at exit (all p > 0.05). Responses from the focus group indicated that the text messages acted as a welcome reminder and a source of positive motivation, and were perceived as extended care from the health care provider.ConclusionsWhile the intervention failed to improve antenatal health knowledge, evidence from self-reported behaviour and the focus group suggests that text messages have the potential to motivate change in health-seeking behaviour. One should be mindful of loss to follow-up when rolling out mobile health interventions in developing country settings.Trial registrationPan African Clinical Trials Registry PACTR201406000841188. Registered 3 June 2014.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2393-14-284) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

BackgroundYouths in South Africa are poor utilizers of HIV health services. Medecins Sans Frontieres has been piloting youth-adapted services at a youth clinic in Khayelitsha, including a peer virtual mentorship program over mobile phones, piloted from March 2015 to May 2016.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of the peer mentorship program on youth engagement with HIV services and explore the acceptability of the program to both mentors and mentees.MethodsAntiretroviral initiation, retention in care (RIC), and viral load suppression were compared between youths engaged in the virtual mentorship program and two matched controls. In-depth interviews were also conducted for 5 mentors and 5 mentees to explore acceptability and impact of the program.ResultsA total of 40 youths were recruited into the virtual mentorship program over the study period. Of these, data were obtained for 35 and 2 matched controls were randomly sampled for each. There was no difference in baseline demographics (eg, age, gender, and CD4 count). Mentees had increased antiretroviral initiation (28/35, 80% vs 30/70, 42% in matched controls) and viral load completion (28/35, 80% vs 32/70, 45%); however, no differences were found in viral load suppression or RIC at 6 or 12 months. Mentors reported being motivated to participate in the program because of previous personal struggles with HIV and a desire to help their peers. Mentees reported fears of disclosure and lack of acceptance of their status as barrier to accessing services, but they felt free to talk to their mentors, valued the mentorship program, and indicated a preference for phone calls.ConclusionsPeer mentorship in youths is acceptable to both mentors and mentees and appears to increase linkage to care and viral load completion rates.

Background Globally, 37 million people are in need of lifelong antiretroviral treatment (ART). With the continual increase in the number of people living with HIV starting ART and the need for life-long retention and adherence, increasing attention is being paid to differentiated service delivery (DSD), such as adherence clubs. Adherence clubs are groups of 25–30 stable ART patients who meet five times per year at their clinic or a community location and are facilitated by a lay health-care worker who distributes pre-packed ART. This qualitative study explores patient experiences of clubs in two sites in Cape Town, South Africa. Methods A total of 144 participants took part in 11 focus group discussions (FGDs) and 56 in-depth interviews in the informal settlements of Khayelitsha and Gugulethu in Cape Town, South Africa. Participants included current club members, stable patients who had never joined a club and club members referred back to clinician-led facility-based standard care. FGDs and interviews were conducted in isiXhosa, translated and transcribed into English, entered into NVivo, coded and thematically analysed. Results The main themes were 1) understanding and knowledge of clubs; 2) understanding of and barriers to enrolment; 3) perceived benefits and 4) perceived disadvantages of the clubs. Participants viewed membership as an achievement and considered returning to clinician-led care a ‘failure’. Moving between clubs and the clinic created frustration and broke down trust in the health-care system. Conclusions Adherence clubs were appreciated by patients, particularly time-saving in relation to flexible ART collection. Improved patient understanding of enrolment processes, eligibility and referral criteria and the role of clinical oversight is essential for building relationships with health-care workers and trust in the health-care system.

BackgroundThe use of mobile phones to deliver health care (mHealth) is increasing in popularity due to the high prevalence of mobile phone penetration. This is seen in developing countries, where mHealth may be particularly useful in overcoming traditional access barriers. Non-communicable diseases may be particularly amenable to mHealth interventions, and hypertension is one with an escalating burden in the developing world.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to test whether the dissemination of health information via a short message service (SMS) led to improvements in health knowledge and self-reported health-related behaviors.MethodsA mixed methods study was carried out among a cohort of 223 hypertension clinic patients, in a resource-poor setting in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2012. Hypertensive outpatients were recruited at the clinic and administered a baseline questionnaire to establish existing knowledge of hypertension. Participants were then randomly assigned to intervention or control groups. The intervention group received 90 SMSes over a period of 17 weeks. Thereafter, the baseline questionnaire was readministered to both groups to gauge if any improvements in health knowledge had occurred. Those who received SMSes were asked additional questions about health-related behavior changes. A focus group was then conducted to obtain in-depth feedback about participants’ experience with, and response to, the SMS campaign.ResultsNo statistically significant changes in overall health knowledge were observed between the control and intervention groups. The intervention group had positive increases in self-reported behavior changes. These were reaffirmed by the focus groups, which also revealed a strong preference for the SMS campaign and the belief that the SMSes acted as a reminder to change, as opposed to providing new information.ConclusionsAlthough the content of the SMSes was not new, and did not improve health knowledge, SMSes were effective in motivating positive self-reported behavior change among hypertensive patients.Trial RegistrationPan African Clinical Trials Registry Number: PACTR201412000968462. Registered 18 December 2014 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6fhtyLRcO).