The Cholera-Hospital-Based-Intervention-for-7-days (CHoBI7) mobile health (mHealth) program was a cluster-randomized controlled trial of diarrhea patient households conducted in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

The results of this cluster-randomized controlled trial of the CHoBI7 Mobile Health Program were published in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Here, patients were block-randomized to three arms – standard recommendation on oral rehydration solution use; health facility delivery of CHoBI7 plus mHealth (no home visits); and health facility delivery of CHoBI7 plus two home visits and mHealth. The primary outcome was reported diarrhea in the past two weeks collected monthly for 12 months. The secondary outcomes were stunting, underweight and wasting at a 12-month follow-up. Analysis was intention-to-treat.

Between December 4, 2016 and April 26, 2018, 2 626 participants from 769 households were randomly allocated to three arms – 849 participants to standard message; 886 to mHealth with no home visits; and 891 to mHealth with two home visits.

The results revealed that children under five years of age had significantly lower 12-month diarrhea prevalence in both, the mHealth with two home visits arm and the mHealth with no home visits arm. Whereas, children under 2 years were significantly less likely to be stunted in both, the mHealth with two home visits armand the mHealth with no home visits arm, compared to children in the standard message arm.

Therefore, the CHoBI7 mHealth program lowered pediatric diarrhea and stunting among diarrhea patient households.

Source: Clinical Infectious Diseases.2020 Aug 6;ciaa754. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciaa754.