SMS messages increase adherence to rapid diagnostic test results among malaria patients: results from a pilot study in Nigeria

Sepideh Modrek, Eric Schatzkin, Anna De La Cruz, Chinwoke Isiguzo, Ernest Nwokolo, Jennifer Anyanti, Chinazo Ujuju, Dominic Montagu & Jenny Liu 

Malaria Journal, Feb 25, 2014

The World Health Organization now recommends parasitological confirmation for malaria case management. However, where they have been deployed, adherence to RDT results has been poor, especially when the test result is negative. Participants were given a free RDT and the appropriate treatment advice based on their RDT result. Short Message Service (SMS) text messages reiterating the treatment advice were sent to a randomly selected half of the participants one day after being tested. SMS text messages substantially increased adherence to RDT results for patients seeking care for malaria from privately owned drug retailers in Nigeria and may be a simple and cost-effective means for boosting adherence to RDT results if and when RDTs are introduced as a commercial retail product. Read the publication here.