mHealth intervention “ImTeCHO” to improve delivery of maternal, neonatal, and child care services—A cluster-randomized trial in tribal areas of Gujarat, India

Background: The coverage of community-based maternal, neonatal, and child health (MNCH) services remains low, especially in hard-to-reach areas. We evaluated the effectiveness of a mobile-phone–and web-based application, Innovative Mobile-phone Technology for Community Health Operations (ImTeCHO), as a job aid to the government’s Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) and Primary Health Center (PHC) staff to improve coverage of MNCH services in rural tribal communities of Gujarat, India. Methods and findings: This open cluster-randomized trial was conducted in 22 PHCs in six tribal blocks of Bharuch and Narmada districts in India. The ImTeCHO mobile-phone–and web-based application included various technology-based job aids to facilitate scheduling of home visits, screening for complications, counseling during home visits, and supportive supervision by PHC staff. Primary outcome indicators were a composite index calculated based on coverage of important MNCH services and coverage of at least two home visitations by ASHA within the first week of birth. Primary analysis was intention to treat (ITT). Generalized Estimating Equation (GEE) was used to account for clustering. Eleven PHCs each were randomly allocated to the intervention (280 ASHAs, population: 234,134) and control (281 ASHAs, population: 242,809) arms. The intervention was implemented from February, 2016 to January, 2017. At the end of the implementation, 6,493 mothers were surveyed. Most of the surveyed women were tribal (5,571, 85.8%), and reported having a government-issued certificate for living below poverty line (4,916, 75.7%). The coverage of at least two home visits within first week of birth was 32.4% in the intervention clusters compared to 22.9% in the control clusters (adjusted effect size 10.2 [95% CI: 6.4, 14.0], p