Abstract
IntroductionBangladesh 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.MethodsA total of 4,915 randomly-chosen respondents aged 18 years and above were interviewed.ResultsHousehold 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.ConclusionsThe 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.
Highlights
Bangladesh has a serious shortage of qualified health workforce
Very few people were aware of the available mHealth services
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
Summary
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. The limited numbers of trained service providers are based in urban areas, which limits access to quality healthcare for the rural population. Bangladesh continues to be one of the 57 countries with a serious shortage of trained doctors, paramedics, nurses and midwives despite attempt for increased production in the recent years [1]. The presence of the limited number of qualified service providers is highly urban-centred, with 86% of the physicians; and 75% of the nurses and dentists are based in urban areas where only 20% of the population lives [2]. The first port of call for the poor is the informally trained village doctors and drug retailers who make their living by selling drugs They quite often use more than necessary and inappropriate drugs for treating patients [3,4]. Given the current level of production of trained health workforce, it is very unlikely that the situation will change drastically in the near future
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