Prospects of mHealth Services in Bangladesh: Recent Evidence from Chakaria
Prospects of mHealth Services in Bangladesh: Recent Evidence from Chakaria
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DOI：
10.1371/journal.pone.0111413
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发表时间：
2014-11-06
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Bhuiya, Abbas
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Khatun, Fatema;Hanifi, S. M. A.;Bhuiya, Abbas
简介：孟加拉国严重缺乏合格的卫生人力。城市地区经过培训的服务提供者数量有限，这限制了农村人口获得优质医疗保健的机会。移动医疗为确保人们获得优质服务提供了新的机会。最近的一项审查表明，该国有 19 项移动医疗举措。本文报告了 2012-13 年在孟加拉国查卡里亚农村分区进行的一项研究中关于人们的知识、认知、使用、成本和遵守移动医疗服务建议的结果。方法：随机选择的 4,915 名 18 岁及以上受访者接受了采访。结果：研究地区家庭拥有移动电话的比例从 2004 年的 2% 增加到 2012 年的 81%； 45%的受访者表示他们拥有手机。 31% 的受访者知道使用手机进行医疗保健。很少有人知道可用的移动医疗服务。男性、年轻群体、受过良好教育以及来自富裕家庭的人对现有的移动医疗服务更加了解。在调查前两周寻求医疗保健的受访者中，只有 2% 使用手机进行医疗保健。使用手机咨询的患者与亲自就诊的患者在购买和服用药物方面遵守医疗保健提供者建议的情况有些相似。结论：手机在社会中的高度普及为使用移动医疗技术咨询医疗保健提供者提供了独特的机会。尽管人们对移动医疗服务的存在知之甚少，但令人鼓舞的是，通过手机和现场访问收到的建议的处方遵守率几乎相似。该研究明确表明社会期待接受移动医疗技术。
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.Methods: A total of 4,915 randomly-chosen respondents aged 18 years and above were interviewed.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.