Table 3.
Characteristics of the included studies.
| First author | Year | Study type | Population | Intervention(s) | Level of care | Setting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alam (38) | 2017 | Retrospective cross-sectional survey | Mothers with last born child between 3 and 18 months | Mothers enrolled and exposed to the messages (SMS or voice) during pregnancy, delivery, information on nutrition for pregnant women and new mothers. | Primary care | Bangladesh |
| Atnafu (39) | 2017 | Randomized controlled trial | Health Extension Workers and Community Health Workers | Mobile phone equipped with short message service (SMS) based data-exchange software that stores maternal and child health forms and sends to central server. The server sends reminders of antenatal care visits, expected delivery date etc. | Primary care | Ethiopia |
| Bangure (40) | 2015 | Randomized controlled trial | Woman or caregiver recruited after delivery or 3rd and 7th day visits after delivery. | Intervention group: health education and SMS reminders. Control group: routine health education only. | Primary care | Zimbabwe |
| Brown (41) | 2017 | Randomized controlled trial | Mothers-infant pair. Infants aged 0–3 during the infants' first immunization visit | CALLS: cell phone calls reminding mothers to take child for immunizations. | Primary care | Nigeria |
| Dissieka (42) | 2019 | Randomized controlled trial | Motherchild pairs at the time of the child's BCG immunization visit (within 5 weeks of the child's birth) | Mothers (or caretakers) in the intervention group were provided SMS or voice message reminders, based on their preference, prior to each scheduled facility visit and two additional reminders in the event of non-attendance. Mothers in the control group were not provided any reminder messages. | Primary care | Ivory Coast |
| Ekhaguere (43) | 2019 | A randomized controlled trial | Parturient women and their healthy newborn infants delivered at state-run facilities | Windows software application (app) designed to send automated voice call text and email immunization reminders. Messaging and voice were sent by Twilio through the app. | Primary care | Nigeria |
| Gibson (44) | 2017 | Randomized controlled trial (4 groups) | Caregivers with a child aged <5 weeks yet to receive a first dose of pentavalent vaccine. | In the 3 intervention groups SMS reminders were sent with and without incentives (SMS reminders only, SMS + 75KES incentive, SMS + 200KES incentive) 3 days and the day before immunization at week 6, 10 and 14. | Primary care | Kenya |
| Hackett (45) | 2018 | Cluster randomized controlled trial | Community health workers | Smartphone application used by community health workers for client registration, home visit scheduling, time-tailored counseling prompts, automated referral and follow-up reminders. Paper-based protocols used for control group. | Primary care | Tanzania |
| Haji (46) | 2016 | Randomized controlled trial (3 groups) | Children aged <12 months presenting for their first dose of pentavalent vaccine | Two intervention groups with SMS reminders and stickers reminding guardians to return for second and third dose of vaccine. | Primary care | Kenya |
| Kazi (47) | 2018 | Randomized controlled trial | Child aged <2 weeks, parent or guardian | Intervention group: 4 SMS reminders + one-time standard verbal counseling. Control group: one-time standard verbal counseling. | Tertiary care | Pakistan |
| Lund (48) | 2012 | Cluster randomized controlled trial | Pregnant women who attended ANC. | Wired mothers: SMS to provide health education and appointment reminders and improve ANC, PNC and skilled delivery attendance. | Primary care | Zanzibar, Tanzania |
| Lund (49) | 2014 | Cluster randomized controlled trial | Pregnant women attending first ANC visit. | Wired mothers: SMS to provide health education and appointment reminders and improve ANC, PNC and skilled delivery attendance. | Primary care | Zanzibar, Tanzania |
| Lund (50) | 2014 | Cluster randomized controlled trial | Pregnant women attending first ANC visit. | Wired mothers: SMS to provide health education and appointment reminders and improve ANC, PNC and skilled delivery attendance. | Primary care | Zanzibar, Tanzania |
| Lund (51) | 2016 | Cluster randomized controlled trial | Health care workers in health care facilities. | Safe delivery App to increase health care workers' knowledge and skills in in neonatal resuscitation. | Primary care | Ethiopia |
| Modi (19) | 2019 | Cluster randomized controlled trial | Primary health center staff. | ImTeCH mobile-phone and web-based application to facilitate scheduling of home visits, screening for complications, counseling during home visits, and supportive supervision by primary health center staff. | Primary care | India |
| Murthy (52) | 2020 | Pseudo- randomized controlled trial | Pregnant women | mMITRA: age- and stage-based mobile phone voice messaging initiative for women, during pregnancy and up to 1 year after delivery. | Primary care | India |
| Murthy (53) | 2019 | Pseudo- randomized controlled trial | Pregnant women | mMITRA: age- and stage-based mobile phone voice messaging initiative for women, during pregnancy and up to 1 year after delivery. | Primary care | India |
| Nagar (54) | 2018 | Cluster randomized controlled trial (3 groups) | Mothers with an infant aged <6 months. | The intervention groups received NFC pendant and NFC pendant with voice call reminders. The control group received NFC sticker. | Primary care | India |
| Odeny (55) | 2014 | Randomized controlled trial | HIV-positive pregnant women aged >18 years. | SMS: eight text messages before delivery and six messages postpartum. | Primary Care | Kenya |
| Olajubu (23) | 2020 | Quasi-experimental study | Pregnant women at gestational age of 28–34 weeks. | A mobile health intervention software used to send educational and reminder messages (SMS) from the 35th week of pregnancy to 6 weeks after delivery. | Primary care | Nigeria |
| Oyeyemi (56) | 2014 | Case-control study | Pregnant women and health workers. | Free, Closed-Users' Group cell phones provided to pregnant women and health workers. Communication free of charge. | Primary care | Nigeria |
| Seth (57) | 2018 | Randomized controlled trial (3 groups) | Children aged ≤ 24 months and pregnant women. | Automated mobile phone reminders and compliance-linked incentives to the intervention groups. Routine verbal instructions about subsequent vaccination date to the control group. | Primary care | India |
| Shiferaw (58) | 2016 | Non-randomized controlled trial | Health workers and pregnant women. | Health workers in the intervention group used an application with SMS reminders for schedule visits during ANC, delivery and PNC. | Primary care | Ethiopia |
ANC, antenatal care; NFC, Near Field Communication; PNC, post-natal care.