JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Ensuring an appropriate continuum of care in maternal, newborn, and child health, as well as nutrition care, is challenging in remote areas. To make the care accessible for mothers and infants, we developed a telehealth care system, called Portable Health Clinic for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health.

Objective:

This study examines its effectiveness in improving women’s and infants’ care uptakes and detect their health problems.

Methods:

A quasi-experimental study is conducted in rural Bangladesh. Villages are allocated to the intervention and control areas. Pregnant women (≥16 gestational weeks) participate together with their infants and will be followed up one year after delivery/birth. The intervention includes regular health check-ups using the Portable Health Clinic, telehealth care system equipped with a series of sensors and an information system that can triage participants’ health levels, based on the results of the check-up. Women and infants receive care four times during the antenatal period, thrice during the postnatal period, and twice during the motherhood/childhood period. The outcomes are participants’ health check-up coverage, gestational/neonatal complications rate, complementary feeding rate, and health-seeking behavior. We will use a multilevel logistic regression and a generalized estimating equation to evaluate the intervention effectiveness.

Conclusions:

This new trial should show the effectiveness and extent of the continuum of care using telehealth care towards women’s and infants’ health status, from the antenatal to the motherhood/childhood period. Trial Registration: The trial was registered in the International Standard Randomized Controlled Trial Number (ISRCTN44966621).