Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2017 Dec 4;17(Suppl 2):703.
doi: 10.1186/s12913-017-2639-8.

Feasibility of implementing a cellphone-based reminder/recall strategy to improve childhood routine immunization in a low-resource setting: a descriptive report

Victoria Bolanle Brown  1 , O Abimbola Oluwatosin  2
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Feasibility of implementing a cellphone-based reminder/recall strategy to improve childhood routine immunization in a low-resource setting: a descriptive report

Victoria Bolanle Brown et al. BMC Health Serv Res. .

Abstract

Background: Reminder/recall systems are effective ways to improve immunization rates, but their feasibility in primary health care (PHC) settings in Nigeria has not been adequately evaluated. In this study we describe the acceptability and adaptability of immunization reminder/recall system in an urban setting in southwest Nigeria.

Methods: This is a descriptive report of a cluster randomized controlled trial. Four local government areas (LGAs) were randomly assigned into a cellphone reminder/recall intervention group or a usual care control group. Within each LGA, PHC centers were purposively selected to participate in the study. In each PHC center, mothers and their infants aged 0-3 months were enrolled into the two groups during the infants' first immunization visit. Mothers (or other contact persons) in the intervention group received cellphone calls reminding them to take their child for scheduled immunizations. Follow-up of all the children lasted till the final scheduled immunization visit for each child. The intervention lasted for 13 months.

Results: A total of 595 mothers/infants pairs (295 in the intervention group and 300 in the control group) participated in the study. Almost all mothers (n = 590, 99.2%) had access to their own cellphone or had access to a cellphone belonging to a significant other. Ninety-eight percent (n = 584) of all mothers were willing to receive immunization reminder/recall phone calls. Eighty-seven percent (n = 2023) of all calls (n = 2324) for the reminder/recall intervention went through to the recipients and of these calls, 1948 (96.3%) were received. The mean cost of each call in US Dollars was about 5 cents. Immunization compliance rate (the receipt of required number of doses of routine vaccines at the appropriate age at recommended interval) was 79.2% among the children in intervention group and 46.4% in the control group (p < 0.001).

Conclusion: Results demonstrate that cellphone reminder/recall interventions to improve routine childhood immunization are feasible in PHC settings in limited-resource settings with wide cellphone coverage, such as urban areas in Nigeria. Further research to test the potential for scale up in a variety of settings is recommended.

Trial registration: PACTR201702002043415 ; Date of registration: 17 February 2017. (Retrospectively registered).

Keywords: Acceptability; Adaptability; Childhood; Effectiveness; Immunization; Reminder/recall.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Ethical approval for the main study was obtained from the Oyo State Research Ethical Review Committee (Approval Number: AD 13/479/209). All mothers provided signed informed consent prior to participating in the study.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Study flowchart
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Immunization compliance rates between intervention and control groups
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. World Health Organization . Children: reducing mortality. 2013.
    1. United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Levels and trends in child mortality report 2011: estimates developed by the United Nations inter-agency group for child mortality estimation. New York, USA: UNICEF; 2011. pp. 3–5.
    1. Andre FE, Booy R, Bock HL, Clemens J, Datta SK, John TJ, Lee BW, Lolekha S, Peltola H, Ruff TA, Santosham M, Schmitt HJ. Vaccination greatly reduces disease, disability, death and inequity worldwide. Bull World Health Organ. 2008;86(2):140–146. doi: 10.2471/BLT.07.040089. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases General recommendations on immunization: recommendations of the advisory committee on immunization practices (ACIP) MMWR Recomm Rep. 2011;60(2):1–64. - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization . World immunization week 2013: protect your world - get vaccinated: origins the campaign, public health context. Switzerland: WHO; 2013.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources