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BMC Public Health
Published in: BMC Public Health 1/2018

Open Access 01-12-2018 | Research article

Development of an intervention delivered by mobile phone aimed at decreasing unintended pregnancy among young people in three lower middle income countries

Authors: Ona L McCarthy, Ola Wazwaz, Veronica Osorio Calderon, Iman Jado, Salokhiddin Saibov, Amina Stavridis, Jhonny López Gallardo, Ravshan Tokhirov, Samia Adada, Silvia Huaynoca, Shelly Makleff, Marieka Vandewiele, Sarah Standaert, Caroline Free

Published in: BMC Public Health | Issue 1/2018

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Abstract

Background

Unintended pregnancies can result in poorer health outcomes for women, children and families. Young people in low and middle income countries are at particular risk of unintended pregnancies and could benefit from innovative contraceptive interventions. There is growing evidence that interventions delivered by mobile phone can be effective in improving a range of health behaviours. This paper describes the development of a contraceptive behavioural intervention delivered by mobile phone for young people in Tajikistan, Bolivia and Palestine, where unmet need for contraception is high among this group.

Methods

Guided by Intervention Mapping, the following steps contributed to the development of the interventions: (1) needs assessment; (2) specifying behavioural change to result from the intervention; (3) selecting behaviour change methods to include in the intervention; (4) producing and refining the intervention content.

Results

The results of the needs assessment produced similar interventions across the countries. The interventions consist of short daily messages delivered over 4 months (delivered by text messaging in Palestine and mobile phone application instant messages in Bolivia and Tajikistan). The messages provide information about contraception, target attitudes that are barriers to contraceptive uptake and support young people in feeling that they can influence their reproductive health. The interventions each contain the same ten behaviour change methods, adapted for delivery by mobile phone.

Conclusions

The development resulted in a well-specified, theory-based intervention, tailored to each country. It is feasible to develop an intervention delivered by mobile phone for young people in resource-limited settings.
Appendix
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Metadata
Title
Development of an intervention delivered by mobile phone aimed at decreasing unintended pregnancy among young people in three lower middle income countries
Authors
Ona L McCarthy
Ola Wazwaz
Veronica Osorio Calderon
Iman Jado
Salokhiddin Saibov
Amina Stavridis
Jhonny López Gallardo
Ravshan Tokhirov
Samia Adada
Silvia Huaynoca
Shelly Makleff
Marieka Vandewiele
Sarah Standaert
Caroline Free
Publication date
01-12-2018
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Public Health / Issue 1/2018
Electronic ISSN: 1471-2458
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-5477-7

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