Study Shows Text Messaging is an Effective Tool to Improve Access to Prenatal Health Information
By Office of Communications & Marketing | Feb 13, 2020
MEDIA CONTACT: John Gillespie | john.gillespie@downstate.edu | (718)270-2262
Research by SUNY Downstate School of Public Health Targets Pregnant
Urban African American and Immigrant Afro-Caribbean Women
BROOKLYN, N.Y. (February 13, 2020) – Pregnant urban African American and immigrant Afro-Caribbean women are more likely
to receive the prenatal health information they need if they are given access to mhealth apps like Text4baby. That is the finding of a new study from SUNY Downstate Health
Sciences University School of Public Health.
The study, “Using Text Messaging to Improve Access to Prenatal Health Information in Urban African
American and Afro-Caribbean Immigrant Pregnant Women: Mixed Methods Analysis of Text4baby
Usage”, was published online today in the journal JMIR mHealth and uhealth.
This study aimed to understand the real-life experiences of pregnant urban African
American and Afro-Caribbean immigrant women with accessing quality prenatal health
care and health information; to assess usage of mHealth for seeking prenatal health
information; and to measure changes in participants’ knowledge, perceptions, and behavioral
intent to use the Text4baby mHealth educational intervention.
Beginning with a focus group of 9 women, the investigators identified three barriers
these women faced in getting quality prenatal health information including the quality
of patient-provider engagement, a lack of social support, and acculturalization of
immigrant women.
“We discovered that inadequate engagement with their provider left these women feeling
indifferent about the prenatal care and information they received in the clinical
setting,” said Tenya M. Blackwell, BS, MS, DrPH, lead author of the study, and director
of Community Engagement and Research at the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health.
“Based on these findings, we developed a survey of 49 women to gauge whether an app
like Text4baby might bridge this indifference."
The results of this survey showed 63% believed an app like Text4baby would provide
them with the extra support they wanted during pregnancy. Additionally, on a Likert
scale of 1 to 5, their perception of the usefulness, compatibility and relative advantage
of using the app ranked at 4.26, 4.41 and 4.15 respectively.
In a follow-up survey to measure changes in knowledge, perceptions and intent, these
women showed a 14% increase from earlier testing in reporting their intent to use
the app, and a 28% increase in their intent to speak more with their provider about
the prenatal health information they learned about on Text4baby.
"In today’s society, smart phones are ubiquitous and information delivered through
them cuts across most social, cultural and economic barriers,” said Laura Geer, PhD,
MHS, principal investigator and Chair and Associate Professor, Department of Environmental
and Occupational Health Sciences at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University School
of Public Health. “Even with a small sample size, these results clearly demonstrate
how mhealth apps, focused on prenatal health, can go a long way in overcoming the
economic, social and cultural barriers these women face in receiving the prenatal
health information and care they need to have a healthy pregnancy.”
The study was funded by University Hospital of Brooklyn SUNY Downstate Health Sciences
University President’s Health Disparities Fund. Authors include Drs. Blackwell and
Geer, as well as Lori A. Hoepner, MPH, DrPH, SUNY, Assistant Professor, Department
of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, SUNY Downstate School of Public
Health, and LeConte J. Dill, MPH, DrPH, Director of Public Health Practice and Clinical
Associate Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences, NYU School of Global Public
Health.
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