Abstract
BackgroundThe use of digital interventions for managing chronic diseases is significantly increasing. The aim of this study was to estimate the proportion of ownership of a mobile phone, and factors associated with the ability to read and access SMS delivered health information, and willingness to pay for it among people with hypertension in a rural area in Bangladesh.MethodsData were collected from 307 participants aged 30 to 75 years with hypertension from a rural area in Bangladesh from December 2020 to January 2021. Outcome measures included ownership of a mobile phone, ability to read SMS, willingness to receive and pay for health information by SMS. Associated factors included age, gender, level of education, occupation, and socioeconomic status. We used regression analysis to identify variables associated with the outcome variables.ResultsOverall, 189 (61.6%) people owned a mobile phone which was higher in men (73.3% vs. 50%, p < 0.001), younger people (82.6% aged 30–39 years vs. 53.5% aged 60–75 years, p < 0.001). Of the total participants, 207 (67.4%) were willing to receive SMS, and 155 (50.5%) were willing to pay for receiving SMS for health information. The prevalence was significantly higher among professionals (odds ratio (OR), 95% confidence interval (CI): 4.58, 1.73–12.1) and businesspersons (OR 3.68, 95% CI 1.49–9.10) compared to farmers, respectively. The median (interquartile range [IQR]) of willingness to pay for health information SMS was 10 (28) Bangladesh Taka (BDT) (1 BDT ~ 0.013 US$), and there were no specific factors that were associated with the willingness of any higher amounts of payment. In terms of reading SMS of people who own a mobile, less than half could read SMS. The proportion of people who could read SMS was significantly higher among men, younger people, educated people, middle class or rich people, professionals or businesspersons. Of people who could read SMS, the majority read SMS occasionally.ConclusionA significant proportion of people are unable to read SMS. However, people are willing to receive and pay to receive SMS for health information. Education and awareness programs should be conducted among targeted groups, including people with low education and women.
Highlights
The use of digital interventions for managing chronic diseases is significantly increasing
The significant findings from this study include: (1) that in rural Bangladesh, there is a gap in ownership of mobile phones, with about half of the women and half of the older people owning a mobile, (2) irrespective of socio-demographic factors, the willingness to receive short message system (SMS) for health information was high, (3) half of the participants were willing to pay to receive
We found that women are 23% less likely to own a mobile phone than men, which is consistent with previous findings in South Asia [50]
Summary
The use of digital interventions for managing chronic diseases is significantly increasing. Managing hypertension appropriately requires a long-term care plan, including advice and support for adherence to a healthy lifestyle and treatment for better health outcomes. Non-adherence to disease management plans remains a serious challenge globally, with the situation worse in developing countries [3,4,5,6,7,8,9]. Mobile health (mHealth) technologies have been playing a key role in managing disease outcomes including in conditions such as diabetes, hypertension and other cardiovascular diseases, maternal health and psychological disorders [10,11,12,13,14]. The use of mHealth empowers patients, health workers and health system managers to manage care efficiently and effectively through different ways, including providing online guidelines and referral services, reminders and self-management and medication adherence. While studies indicate that mHealth systems can increase patients’ satisfaction with quality health care [12, 15,16,17,18,19,20], other reports have provided mixed evidence regarding the health benefits of mHealth [21]
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