Smart Patient, Smart Community: Improving Client Participation in Family Planning Consultations through a Community Education and Mass-Media Program in Indonesia

Six Recommendations for Provider Behavior Change in Family Planning

Health care provider behavior has the power to influence family planning and reproductive health outcomes positively and negatively, underlining the importance of provider behavior change (PBC) initiatives. However, global health practitioners lack a shared understanding of PBC interventions and what influences provider behavior. Furthermore, PBC interventions in family planning and reproductive health have tended to address individual and workplace environmental factors rather than the full breadth of factors that influence provider behavior, including the broader systems and contexts where providers operate. This commentary contributes to a common understanding of PBC, including the determinants of provider behavior, and describes actions to advance PBC efforts in family planning and reproductive health. To inform these considerations, we conducted a narrative review of more than 70 articles and project materials describing interventions that aimed to change provider behaviors pertaining to family planning and reproductive health and used the review to identify the most and least common provider cadres addressed, behavioral determinants targeted, and strategies implemented. We strongly encourage global health practitioners to design future PBC interventions for a more diverse set of cadres and contexts, consider the full set of factors that influence provider behavior, pair provider- and client-side interventions, shift the narrative around PBC from "blaming" to supporting providers, move beyond training-only interventions, and improve the rigor of measurement and evidence-building efforts for PBC. These considerations can be used to advance the field of PBC in family planning and reproductive health to improve outcomes across the service delivery continuum.

Acceptability and user experiences of a patient-held smart card for antenatal services in Nigeria: a qualitative study

BACKGROUND

Poor maternal, newborn and child health outcomes remain a major public health challenge in Nigeria. Mobile health (mHealth) interventions such as patient-held smart cards have been proposed as effective solutions to improve maternal health outcomes. Our objectives were to assess the acceptability and experiences of pregnant women with the use of a patient-held smartcard for antenatal services in Nigeria.

METHODS

Using focus group discussions, qualitative data were obtained from 35 pregnant women attending antenatal services in four Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Benue State, Nigeria. The audio-recorded data were transcribed and analyzed using framework analysis techniques such as the PEN-3 cultural model as a guide.

RESULTS

The participants were 18-44 years of age (median age: 24 years), all were married and the majority were farmers. Most of the participants had accepted and used the smartcards for antenatal services. The most common positive perceptions about the smartcards were their ability to be used across multiple health facilities, the preference for storage of the women's medical information on the smartcards compared to the usual paper-based system, and shorter waiting times at the clinics. Notable facilitators to using the smartcards were its provision at the "Baby showers" which were already acceptable to the women, access to free medical screenings, and ease of storage and retrieval of health records from the cards. Costs associated with health services was reported as a major barrier to using the smartcards. Support from health workers, program staff and family members, particularly spouses, encouraged the participants to use the smartcards.

CONCLUSION

These findings revealed that patient-held smart card for maternal health care services is acceptable by women utilizing antenatal services in Nigeria. Understanding perceptions, barriers, facilitators, and supportive systems that enhance the use of these smart cards may facilitate the development of lifesaving mobile health platforms that have the potential to achieve antenatal, delivery, and postnatal targets in a resource-limited setting.

Development of a Question Prompt List for Patients Living With HIV and Assessment of Their Information Needs

A question prompt list (QPL) is an efficient method to facilitate patient active participation and communication by providing patients with questions to ask their health care providers. We developed a QPL based on the information needs of patients living with HIV in Korea. A mixed method study design was used, involving five sequential steps: literature review, focus group interview with experienced nurses, in-depth interviews with patients, expert reviews, and a survey of 170 patients. A QPL with 27 questions was developed through literature reviews and expert reviews, and 12 questions were identified based on the Borich needs assessment model. Questions included items regarding diagnosis and prognosis, medication, depressive symptoms, sexual relationships, and family and social life. Our findings suggest that a QPL should be used as a tool to encourage effective communication for patients living with HIV.

Quality of family planning services for women of reproductive age in Lao PDR

BACKGROUND

In Lao PDR, 15% of the married women want to postpone or prevent having a child, yet most are not using contraceptives to achieve this. Literature shows that usage of contraceptives is strongly dependent on the quality of family planning services. However, little is known about the quality of family planning services in Lao PDR.

OBJECTIVE

To assess the quality of family planning services provided in public health facilities in Lao PDR.

METHODS

Using a cross-sectional study design, public health facilities in three provinces in Lao PDR were assessed on structure, process and outcome measures of quality. Following the Quick Investigation of Quality approach, client exit interviews (n = 393), structured observations (n = 218) and facility audits (n = 17) were conducted.

RESULTS

Facility audits, observations and client exit interviews painted different pictures of the overall quality of family planning services. Taking all together, the quality was rated as moderate to high. Only marginal differences in quality were found between family planning services located in different geographical areas. Notably, only married women with children were using these services. Although contraceptives were provided, little attention was given to the information provided during consultations and to the interpersonal relationship between client and provider.

CONCLUSION

The results suggest that although improvements are needed to enhance quality of individual consultations, the greatest gain in reducing unwanted pregnancies would be made by ensuring access for all women of reproductive age.

Reported evidence on the effectiveness of mass media interventions in increasing knowledge and use of family planning in low and middle-income countries: a systematic mixed methods review

BACKGROUND

An estimated 200 million women and girls in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) wish to delay, space or avoid becoming pregnant, yet are not using contraceptives. This study seeks to investigate the effectiveness of mass media interventions for increasing knowledge and use of contraceptives, and to identify barriers to program implementation.

METHODS

Using a mixed-methods systematic approach, we searched five electronic databases using pre-determined search strategies and hand-searching of articles of any study design published from 1994 to 2017 of mass media interventions for family planning education. Two reviewers independently applied clearly defined eligibility criteria to the search results, quality appraisal, data extraction from published reports, and data analysis (using meta-analysis and thematic analysis) following PRISMA guidelines.

RESULTS

We identified 59 eligible studies. Although the majority of studies suggest a positive association between media interventions and family planning outcomes, the pooled results are still consistent with possibly null intervention effects. The reported prevalence ratios (PR) for media interventions association with increased contraceptive knowledge range from 0.97 to 1.41, while the PRs for contraceptive use range from 0.54 to 3.23. The qualitative analysis indicates that there are barriers to contraceptive uptake at the level of individual knowledge (including demographic factors and preconceived notions), access (including issues relating to mobility and financing), and programming (including lack of participatory approaches).

CONCLUSIONS

There is a need for rigorous impact evaluation, including randomised controlled trials, of mass media interventions on knowledge and uptake of family planning in LMIC settings. Interventions should be better tailored to cultural and socio-demographic characteristics of the target populations, while access to resources should continue to remain a priority and be improved, where possible.

Strengthening Social and Behavior Change in Postabortion Care: A Call to Action for Health Professionals

Social and behavior change approaches have shown promise for addressing the demand- and supply-side challenges in postabortion care. As implementers seek to improve the quality of postabortion care, systematically integrating long-standing models and emerging approaches, including behavioral economics, human-centered design, and attribute-based models of behavior change, can promote positive health outcomes.

Efficacy of a Digital Health Tool on Contraceptive Ideation and Use in Nigeria: Results of a Cluster-Randomized Control Trial

A mobile digital health tool piloted in Kaduna City, Nigeria, was efficacious in promoting positive contraceptive attitudes and encouraging women to adopt a modern contraceptive method, thus showing potential for reducing unmet need in Nigeria.

Background:

Contraceptive prevalence in Nigeria remains among the lowest in the world, which substantially contributes to the country's high maternal and child mortality. Mobile phone technology penetration has increased considerably in Nigeria, opening opportunities for programs to use this medium for reaching their intended audience with health-protective information.

Methods:

In 2017, the Health Communication Capacity Collaborative conducted a cluster-randomized control trial in Kaduna City to assess the efficacy of the digital health tool Smart Client on ideational and behavioral variables related to family planning. Twelve wards in the city were randomly assigned to intervention (6 wards) and control (6 wards) arms of the study. A total of 565 women aged 18–35 years were randomly selected from study wards and consented to participate in the study. At recruitment, the women completed a baseline survey. The women in the intervention group were registered to receive 1 welcome call, 13 program calls, and 3 quiz calls on their mobile phones. Each of the program calls had several segments, including introduction, drama episode, and friend-to-friend chat. The last quiz call included evaluation questions. Women in the control arm received no intervention. The efficacy of the intervention was assessed using both per-protocol and intent-to-treat differences-in-differences techniques.

Results:

The intervention and control arms were equivalent in terms of key sociodemographic characteristics, with the exception of religion. Attrition was a major challenge in the study. On average, participants receiving the intervention listened to 7.2 drama episodes but only 2.6 personal stories and 1.1 sample dialogues. The results of both per-protocol and intent-to-treat analyses show that the intervention was efficacious in improving relevant ideational and behavioral outcomes. For example, the intent-to-treat results show that the intervention increased women's perceived level of confidence to discuss family planning with a provider by 27.7 percentage points and modern contraceptive prevalence by 14.8 percentage points.

Conclusion:

This efficacy assessment showed that using an interactive voice response-based digital tool that includes drama is a viable option for promoting positive ideation about family planning and increasing contraceptive use in Nigeria. Significant lessons learned from this efficacy trial include informing participants at the time of recruitment of what the opening segment of the calls will sound like to avoid the calls being mistaken for telemarketing calls and intensive testing prior to scale-up to avoid potential attrition due to technical issues.

Video-based patient decision aids: A scoping review

OBJECTIVE

This study reviews the published literature on the use of video-based decision aids (DA) for patients. The authors describe the areas of medicine in which video-based patient DA have been evaluated, the medical decisions targeted, their reported impact, in which countries studies are being conducted, and publication trends.

METHOD

The literature review was conducted systematically using Medline, Embase, CINAHL, PsychInfo, and Pubmed databases from inception to 2016. References of identified studies were reviewed, and hand-searches of relevant journals were conducted.

RESULTS

488 studies were included and organized based on predefined study characteristics. The most common decisions addressed were cancer screening, risk reduction, advance care planning, and adherence to provider recommendations. Most studies had sample sizes of fewer than 300, and most were performed in the United States. Outcomes were generally reported as positive. This field of study was relatively unknown before 1990s but the number of studies published annually continues to increase.

CONCLUSION

Videos are largely positive interventions but there are significant remaining knowledge gaps including generalizability across populations.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

Clinicians should consider incorporating video-based DA in their patient interactions. Future research should focus on less studied areas and the mechanisms underlying effective patient decision aids.

How to Become a Smart Patient in the Era of Precision Medicine?

The objective of this paper is to define the definition of smart patients, summarize the existing foundation, and explore the approaches and system participation model of how to become a smart patient. Here a thorough review of the literature was conducted to make theory derivation processes of the smart patient; "data, information, knowledge, and wisdom (DIKW) framework" was performed to construct the model of how smart patients participate in the medical process. The smart patient can take an active role and fully participate in their own health management; DIKW system model provides a theoretical framework and practical model of smart patients; patient education is the key to the realization of smart patients. The conclusion is that the smart patient is attainable and he or she is not merely a patient but more importantly a captain and global manager of one's own health management, a partner of medical practitioner, and also a supervisor of medical behavior. Smart patients can actively participate in their healthcare and assume higher levels of responsibility for their own health and wellness which can facilitate the development of precision medicine and its widespread practice.

Psychometric Properties of the Korean Version of the HIV Self-Management Scale in Patients with HIV

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study was to examine validity and reliability of Webel and colleagues' HIV Self-Management Scale when used with a Korean sample.

METHODS

The original 20-item HIV Self-Management Scale was translated into Korean using translation and back-translation. Nine HIV nurse experts tested content validity. Principal component analysis (PCA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of data from 203 patients was used to test construct validity. Concurrent validity was evaluated using correlation with patients' self-rating as a "smart patient" measured using a visual analogue scale. Internal consistency was tested by Cronbach's alpha coefficients.

RESULTS

All items were rated as having satisfactory content validity. Based on PCA and consideration of conceptual meaning, a three-factor solution was selected, explaining 48.76% of the variance. CFA demonstrated the adequacy of the three-domain structure of the construct HIV self-management: daily self-management health practices, social support and HIV self-management, and chronic nature of HIV self-management. Goodness-of-fit indices showed an acceptable fit overall with the full model (χ²/df(₁₆₄)=1.66, RMSEA=0.06, SRMR=0.05, TLI=0.91, and CFI=0.92). The Korean version of the HIV Self-Management Scale (KHSMS) was significantly correlated with patients' self-rated smart patient (r=.41). The subscale Cronbach's alpha coefficients ranged from .78 to .81; alpha for the total scale was .89.

CONCLUSION

The KHSMS provides a valid and reliable measure of self-management in Korean patients with HIV. Continued psychometric testing is recommended to provide further evidence of validity with this population.

[Development and evaluation of "Hospice Smart Patient" service program]

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study was to develop and implement the Hospice Smart Patient Program and to evaluate its effectiveness.

METHODS

It was quasi-experimental non-equivalent pre-post study. Breast cancer patients who underwent surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy, or who needed palliative care, participated in the study. Participants were divided into two groups, experimental and control groups based on their preferences. The program was developed after literature review and discussion among experts on hospice and palliative care. Participants who were in the experimental group received either face-to-face or phone "Hospice Smart Patient" Service at least once a week for 5 months.

RESULTS

There was a significant difference in quality of life and communication skill between the two groups after the service was provided. In addition, participants in experimental group showed improved decision making skills, mastery sense, and understanding of hospice and palliative care, which would be beneficial in improving their quality of life.

CONCLUSION

We have concluded that the "Hospice Smart Patient" Program is useful for cancer patients in decision making, improving self-control and choosing hospice care to improve their quality of life.

Women's narratives on quality in prenatal care: a multicultural perspective

Although significant progress has been made to increase prenatal care access, national organizations concerned with health equity emphasize that eliminating disparities will require greater attention to quality of care, assessed from both the biomedical and patient perspectives. In this study, we examined narratives about pregnancy experiences from low-income primiparous African American, Mexican American, Puerto Rican, and White women who participated in focus groups conducted in 1996. We reanalyzed transcripts from these discussions, extracting passages in which women talked about the content and quality of their prenatal care experiences. Data were mapped to four domains reflecting patient-centeredness markers identified in the 2005 U.S. National Healthcare Disparities Report (NHDR). These markers include the extent to which the women perceived that their provider listened carefully, explained things, showed respect, and spent enough time with them. The narratives provided by the study participants suggest a critical and intuitive understanding of the NHDR patient-centeredness markers and some shared understanding across cultural groups. Implications for improving quality and its measurement in prenatal care are discussed.