Efficacy of mobile phone use on patient retention in care in postnatal clinic in Nakuru

We wanted to assess if use of mobile phone communication improve patient retention in the postnatal clinic. Data was collected by the research assistants using questionnaires. The data obtained was evaluated by the primary investigator for errors and omissions, and then analysed using STATA version 9. Baseline characteristics of mothers in the three arms were compared. Intention to treat principle was used to analyse the data. Similarities between the three arms was demonstrated by comparing baseline characteristics using Chi square tests and Student’s T test for categorical and continuous variables respectively. The effect of mobile phone technology was measured by comparing retention rates in postnatal clinic at 48 hours, 2 weeks and 6 weeks. Retention at Postnatal Clinic were compared between the three groups using Relative risk. Furthermore, rates of exclusive breastfeeding, ability to identify neonatal danger signs and vital status of infants were compared in the three arms using Chi square test and the possibility of having the outcomes in the intervention groups were shown using relative risk ratio. All statistical tests were performed at 95% confidence level and 5% level of significance.The retention in the postnatal clinic was significantly higher for phone and text message arms at 48 hours and 6 weeks (p, <0.05). At 2 weeks, only phone call arm had significantly higher postnatal clinic attendance RR=1.24 (95% CI 1.0, 1.5 p, 0.05). There was a 25% and 29% increase in identification of neonatal dangers in text and phone call arms respectively (p, <0.0001)