Mobile technology for community health workers in India (CAS)
Across India and in many countries around the world, community health workers (CHWs) are responsible for providing basic services at-scale for nutrition, family planning, and immunization and for monitoring and maintaining records of service delivery. Despite long-standing programs that involve CHWs, there are multiple challenges faced by CHWs to deliver these services effectively. In this study, we examined an at-scale mHealth intervention for community health workers (Anganwadi workers) in India, with the goal to improve outcomes for women, infants and young children.
Findings: We studied the extent to which an at-scale mHealth intervention for community health workers (CHWs) in India improved nutrition services to mothers and children. In India, our study (protocol published in BMJ Open) uses a village-matched, controlled design with repeated cross-sectional surveys to evaluate whether the m-Health intervention can enable more timely and appropriate services to pregnant women and children. We have examined time use of the community health workers (BMC Health Serv Res.) in addition to examining perspectives of community health workers and beneficiaries (Plos ONE). Our main impact paper is currently under review.
Publications (sorted by recency):
Avula, R., Bajaj, S., Mani, S., Gopalakrishnan, L., Diamond-Smith, N., Patil, S., Nimmagadda, S., George, N., Fernald, L.C.H., Walker, D., and Menon, P. It’s not just a phone: Multiple factors affect the integration and use of a technology intervention in a large-scale nutrition program. Global Health: Science and Practice. (in press)
Jain, A., Walker, D.M., Avula, R., Diamond-Smith, N., Gopalakrishnan, L., Menon, P., Nimmagadda, S., Patil, S.R., and Fernald L.C.H. Anganwadi worker time use in Madhya Pradesh, India: a cross-sectional study. BMC Health Serv Res. Dec 7;20(1):1130 (2020)
Gopalakrishnan, L., Buback, L., Walker, D., Fernald, L.C.H., and Diamond-Smith, N. Using mHealth to improve health care delivery in India: A qualitative examination of the perspectives of community health workers and beneficiaries. PLoS ONE (2020)
Nimmagadda, S., Gopalkrishnan, L., Avula, R., Diamond-Smith, N., Fernald, L.C.H., Jain, A., Mani, S., Menon, P., Nguyen, P. H., Park, H., Patil, S., Singh, P., and Walker, D. Effects of an mHealth intervention for community health workers on maternal and child nutrition and health service delivery in India: Study protocol for a quasi-experimental mixed methods evaluation BMJ Open (2019) Mar 27;9(3):e025774
Collaborators: Dilys Walker (UCSF), Sumeet Patil (Neerman), Purnima Menon (IFPRI), Nadia Diamond-Smith
Funders: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation