Table 12.

Perceived benefits of using personal phones for CHW work. Base: CHWs reporting use of own mobile phone for work.

	Proportions of CHWs reporting benefit (weighted percentages)
	Ghana (N = 580)	Ethiopia (N = 1004)	Malawi (N = 565)	ALL (N = 2149)
Facilitating work and logistics
Reduction of workload	95.9%a	99.4%b*	97.8%	98.2%c
Making work more efficient	99.2%	95.8%	99.0%	99.1%
Completing work faster	98.4%	99.4%*	97.3%	98.5%
Less need to travel	98.0%	99.7%**	97.4%	98.6%
Timely submission of reports data	94.3%	99.7%	97.2%	97.2%
Easier to arrange meetings/other logistics	99.0%	99.7%	99.6%	99.6%
Makes work more enjoyable	96.2%	90.0%*	99.4%	95.6%
Makes work less stressful	96.0%	88.4%*	94.6%	93.9%
Improving medicine supply	93.8%	96.4%	93.9%	95.0%
Improved communication
Better communication with patients/clients	95.9%	98.7%	81.7%***	92.2%
Better communication with volunteers	85.5%***	99.1%	99.4%	94.8%
Better communication with colleagues/boss	99.2%	99.8%	99.5%	99.6%
Improving patient confidentiality	89.0%	89.4%	90.1%	89.3%
Easier patient follow-up	96.7%	97.6%	97.7%	97.4%
Improved outcomes
Reduces risk of patients defaulting on meds	95.5%	98.5%**	95.2%	96.5%
Improving patient health outcomes	97.3%	92.8%	98.1%	97.7%
Directly saved a patient’s life	77.1%a***	91.6%b	88.3%	85.8%c

Notes:

1. a denotes N = 592; b denotes N = 1006; c denotes N = 2163

2. Meta-analysis: differences between countries: statistically significant results shown in bold: * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.