Lianne Gonsalves ¹, Michelle J Hindin ², Angela Bayer ³, Cesar P Carcamo ³, Peter Gichangi ^4 5 6, Ndema Habib ⁷, Jefferson Mwaisaka ⁴, Lale Say ⁷

Affiliations collapse

Affiliations

• ¹Department of Reproductive Health and Research including UNDP/UNFPA/UNICEF/WHO/World Bank Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction (HRP), World Health Organization, Avenue Appia 20, 1201, Geneva, Switzerland. gonsalvesl@who.int.
• ²Population Council, Department of Reproductive Health, 1 Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, New York, NY, 10017, USA.
• ³Facultad de Salud Pública y Administración, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Av. Honorio Delgado 430, San Martin de Porres, Lima, Peru.
• ⁴International Centre for Reproductive Health Kenya, P.O. Box 91109-80103, Mombasa, Kenya.
• ⁵Department of Human Anatomy, University of Nairobi, P. O. Box 30197, Nairobi, 00100, Kenya.
• ⁶Ghent University, C. Heymanslaan 10, 9000, Ghent, Belgium.
• ⁷Department of Reproductive Health and Research including UNDP/UNFPA/UNICEF/WHO/World Bank Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction (HRP), World Health Organization, Avenue Appia 20, 1201, Geneva, Switzerland.

PMID: 29996854 PMCID: PMC6042417 DOI: 10.1186/s12978-018-0568-6

Abstract 

in English, Spanish

Background: Young people face special challenges to accessing needed sexual and reproductive health (SRH) information and support. With high penetration and access, mobile phones provide a new channel for reaching young people, but there is little evidence around the impact of digital interventions on improving health outcomes. The Adolescent/Youth Reproductive Mobile Access and Delivery Initiative for Love and Life Outcomes (ARMADILLO) study will assess the effect of an intervention providing SRH information to young people via text message on their mobile phones in Kenya and Peru. This protocol details an open, individually-randomized, three-arm trial lasting seven weeks to assess the effect of the ARMADILLO intervention on dispelling myths and misconceptions related to contraception. A secondary objective is to determine whether youth given access to SRH information via text message can accurately retain that information.

Methods: Following a household enumeration, one eligible youth per household will be randomly selected for participation and randomized by computer into one of the three arms. Intervention arm participants will receive access to ARMADILLO content, control participants will receive no information, and ‘Arm 3’ participant interactions will vary by site: in Kenya, they will be alerted to various SRH domains and encouraged to learn on their own; in Peru, they will receive key content from each domain with the option to learn more if they wish. Participants will complete multiple-choice questionnaires administered by data collectors at baseline (prior to randomization), at intervention-period end (after week seven), and eight weeks after timing out of the intervention period.

Discussion: Part of the Sustainable Development Goal commitment towards ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages includes a commitment to ‘ensuring universal access to sexual health and reproductive health-care services, including for family planning, information and education’. If proven to be effective, interventions like ARMADILLO can bridge an important gap towards achieving universal access to SRH information and education for an otherwise difficult-to-reach group.

Trial registration: This trial was retrospectively registered with the ISRCTN Registry and assigned registration number ISRCTN85156148 on 29 May, 2018.

Keywords: Adolescent; Intervention; Low-income countries; Middle-income countries; Sexual and reproductive health; Youth; mHealth.

Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

This study (protocol ID, A65892b) underwent ethics review and obtained approval from the WHO Research Ethics Review Committee (ERC). Ethics approval was also locally obtained from Institutional Review Boards of the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia as well as the University of Nairobi/Kenyatta National Hospital.

All participants will provide their written, informed consent to participate in this study. In Peru, where participants are under 18 years of age, parents will provide written informed consent and the adolescent participants will provide their written, informed assent.

Consent for publication

N/A.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Link

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29996854/