Digital Health Technologies for Maternal and Child Health in Africa and Other Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Cross-disciplinary Scoping Review With Stakeholder Consultation

Authors: Sarina Till, Mirriam Mkhize, Jaydon Farao, Londiwe Deborah Shandu, Livhuwani Muthelo, Toshka Lauren Coleman, Masenyani Mbombi, Mamara Bopape, Sonja Klingberg, Alastair van Heerden,Tebogo Mothiba, Melissa Densmore, Nervo Xavier Verdezoto Dias

This review sought to synthesize the existing published literature in three major disciplines on the use of digital health interventions for maternal and child health (MCH) in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs), with a particular focus on sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The disciplines under investigation included public health, social sciences applied to health, and human-computer interaction research in healthcare. Researchers compiled related information (34 papers in social sciences applied to health, 58 in public health, and 49 in human-computer interaction research in healthcare) from the following databases: Scopus, PubMed, Google Scholar, ACM Digital Library, IEEE Xplore, Web of Science, and PLOS. Results demonstrated that the scope of digital MCH included many CHW initiatives in areas of health education, care and follow-up of health service use, maternal mental health, and nutritional and health outcome tracking. Mobile interventions included mobile apps, SMS text messaging, voice messaging, web-based applications, social media, movies and videos, and wearable or sensor-based devices. In addition, the following key challenges were identified: little attention has been given to understanding the lived experiences of the communities, key role players are often excluded, and many studies are designed considering nuclear families that do not represent the family structures of the local cultures. Given these findings, authors provide several recommendations for improving digital MCH in LMICs and call for more MCH research which features views from direct beneficiaries, to supplement the CHW perspectives highlighted in much of the current literature on the topic.