Improving hepatitis B birth dose in rural Lao People's Democratic Republic through the use of mobile phones to facilitate communication.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Hepatitis B vaccine birth dose (HepB-BD) was introduced in Lao People's Democratic Republic to prevent perinatal hepatitis B virus transmission in 2008; high coverage is challenging since only 38% of births occur in a health facility. Healthcare workers report being unaware of home births and thus unable to conduct timely postnatal care (PNC) home visits. A quasi-experimental pilot study was conducted wherein mobile phones and phone credits were provided to village health volunteers (VHV) and healthcare workers (HCWs) to assess whether this could improve HepB-BD administration, as well as birth notification and increase home visits.

Methods

From April to September 2014, VHVs and HCWs in four selected intervention districts were trained, supervised, received outrea

SUBMITTER: Xeuatvongsa A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8735873 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature