Effect of Mobile Phone Based Health Education Reminder on Neonatal Cord Care among Postnatal Mothers in Ekiti State, Nigeria

This study investigated the effect of mobile phone based health education reminder on neonatal cord care among postnatal mothers in Ekiti state. The study adopted quasi-experimental of pretest- posttest control group research design. The population for the study comprised of postnatal mothers attending health facilities in Ekiti State. A total of 364 postnatal mothers consented to be part of the study. Baseline information was collected using a self-developed questionnaire. The questionnaire was subjected to face and content validity. The reliability of the instrument was determined using Cronbach Alpha reliability to obtain a coefficient of 0.82. Intervention package consisted of carefully prepared text messages designed to remind mothers of important aspects of neonatal cord care were sent to the mobile phones of the selected mothers for four weeks. Post intervention data were collected at the sixth week of the study. The data collected were subjected to descriptive statistics of frequency counts and percentages and inferential statistics of paired sample t-test. The findings of the study revealed that the participants had fair knowledge of neonatal care. However, the study showed that mobile phone health education reminder significantly improves knowledge of neonatal care among postnatal mothers. It was concluded that mobile phone based health education reminder was effective in improving knowledge and practice of neonatal cord care. The study recommends the use of mobile phone health education reminder for postnatal mothers attending health facilities.