review · Global Health Journal
Maternal and child health remains a critical public health issue in resource-constrained areas, including South Africa. A systematic review of 26 studies evaluated mobile health interventions deployed to support mothers and healthcare workers. Identified tools include MomConnect, Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action, NurseConnect, ChildConnect, CommCare, the Road to Health Application, and the Philani Mobile Video Intervention for Exclusive Breastfeeding. These platforms facilitate access to vital maternal information and care services. However, multiple barriers impede their adoption and sustained operation. Challenges include inadequate digital infrastructure, the digital divide, resistance to change, insufficient funding, language barriers, and data and messaging costs. Technical obstacles such as poor system compatibility, interoperability, and limited digital skills, alongside legal compliance, data security, and privacy concerns, also restrict use. Scaling these solutions requires updated regulatory frameworks, active stakeholder engagement, and sustainable financing strategies.
High maternal and child mortality rates persist in resource-constrained areas due to limited healthcare coverage and information gaps. Mobile health tools offer an accessible route to deliver medical guidance, support breastfeeding, and encourage timely clinical visits. Identifying the technical, economic, and social hurdles these systems face helps planners design more robust digital interventions that reach vulnerable mothers and community health workers.
The review examines applied and tested mobile software applications, messaging services, and digital video interventions intended for mothers and healthcare workers. While these tools have demonstrated real-world deployment, widespread commercialisation and long-term scaling require solving operational barriers such as high data costs, software interoperability, regulatory compliance, and data privacy. Digital health developers and telecommunication partners must address these infrastructure and policy constraints to build financially sustainable platforms.
AI-generated from the published abstract. Always read the original work before citing.
Maternal and child health (MCH) remains a significant public health concern globally despite previous efforts made to improve MCH services. Initiatives such as antenatal care, postnatal care services exclusive breastfeeding, child vaccination and supplements have been rolled out to improve MCH outcomes. However, inadequate maternal healthcare, socioeconomic factors, obstetric haemorrhaging, complications of hypertension during pregnancy, lack of maternal information, poor universal health coverage and uptake of MCH services exacerbate maternal mortality and child mortality rates, especially in resource-constrained areas in many sub-Saharan African countries including South Africa. This study aimed to review mobile health (mHealth) interventions deployed to improve maternal and child health outcomes. The study adopted the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses model to search and retrieve relevant literature from reputable, prominent electronic databases (Google Scholar, Scopus, PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, Web of Science, etc.). A total of 26 papers were selected and analyzed. The findings revealed several mHealth interventions such as MomConnect, Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action, NurseConnect, ChildConnect, CommCare, Road to Health Application and Philani Mobile Video Intervention for Exclusive Breastfeeding have been utilized by healthcare workers and women to improve access to MCH services. However, inadequate digital infrastructure, digital divide, resistance to change, inadequate funding, language barriers, short message service and data costs, lack of digital skills and support, compatibility, scalability and interoperability issues, legislative and policy compliance, lack of mHealth awareness, data security and privacy concerns hinder uptake and utilisation of mHealth interventions. There is a need to scale up and sustain mHealth interventions and update existing regulatory framework, policies and strategies. mHealth interventions offer unprecedented opportunities to improve access to maternal information and substantially improve maternal and child health services. Stakeholder engagement and the development of sustainable funding strategies are important for successfully implementing and scaling mHealth projects while addressing existing and emerging key issues.
This page summarises published work. The authoritative version sits with the publisher.
DOI: 10.1016/j.glohj.2024.08.002
Is something wrong with this record? Report it or request removal.
Discussion
Have you built on this work, tried to replicate it, or seen it applied in practice? Share what you know. Verified researchers and MARATTO™ domain experts can open a discussion, and any member can reply. Contributions are reviewed before they appear.
No discussion yet. Open the first thread.
New to MARATTO™? Create a free account.
