Impact assessment and cost-effectiveness of m-health application used by community health workers for maternal, newborn and child health care services in rural Uttar Pradesh, India: a study protocol

摘要

BackgroundAn m-health application has been developed and implemented with community health workers to improve their counseling in a rural area of India. The ultimate aim was to generate demand and improve utilization of key maternal, neonatal, and child health services. The present study aims to assess the impact and cost-effectiveness of this project.Methods/designA pre–post quasi-experimental design with a control group will be used to undertake difference in differences analysis for assessing the impact of intervention. The Annual Health Survey (2011) will provide pre-intervention data, and a household survey will be carried out to provide post-intervention data.Two community development blocks where the intervention was introduced will be treated as intervention blocks while two controls blocks are selected after matching with intervention blocks on three indicators: average number of antenatal care checkups, percentage of women receiving three or more antenatal checkups, and percentage of institution...