Accessing completeness of pregnancy, delivery, and death registration by Accredited Social Health Activists [ASHA] in an innovative mHealth project in the tribal areas of Gujarat

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The Innovative Mobile-phone Technology for Community Health Operation (ImTeCHO) is a mobile-phone application that helps Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) in complete registration through the strategies employed during implementation that is linking ASHAs' incentives to digital records, regular feedback, onsite data entry, and demand generation among beneficiaries. OBJECTIVE: To determine the proportion of pregnancies, deliveries, and infant deaths (events) being registered through the ImTeCHO application against actual number of events in a random sample of villages. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Five representative villages were randomly selected from the ImTeCHO project area in the tribal areas of Gujarat, India to obtain the required sample of 98 recently delivered women. A household survey was done in the entire villages to enumerate each family and create a line-listing of events since January 2014; the line-listing was compared with list of women registered through the ImTeCHO application. The proportion of events being registered through the ImTeCHO application was compared against the actual number of events to find sensitivity of the ImTeCHO application. RESULT: A total of 844 families were found during household enumeration. Out of actual line-listing of pregnancies (N = 39), deliveries (N = 102), and infant deaths (N = 5) found during household enumeration, 38 (97.43%), 101 (99.01%), and 5 (100%) were registered by ASHAs through the ImTeCHO application. CONCLUSION: The use of mobile-phone technology and strategies applied during the ImTeCHO implementation should be upscaled to supplement efforts to improve the completeness of registration.