SMS Text Messages for Parents for the Prevention of Child Drowning in Bangladesh: Acceptability Study

BACKGROUND: In many cases, greater use is being made of mobile phone text messages as a means of communication between patients and health care providers in countries around the world.

OBJECTIVE: We studied the use of mobile phones and the factors related to the acceptability of text messages for parents for the prevention of child drowning in Bangladesh.

METHODS: From a randomized controlled trial involving 800 parents, 10% (80/800) were selected, and socioeconomic status, mobile phone use, and acceptability of SMS text messages for drowning prevention were measured. Participants with at least one child under 5 years of age were selected from rural areas in Rajshahi District in Bangladesh. Mobile phone-based SMS text messages were sent to the participants. Multivariate regression was used to determine the factors related to the acceptability of text messages for the prevention of child drowning in Bangladesh.

RESULTS: The acceptability of SMS text messages for the prevention of child drowning in Bangladesh was significantly lower among women (odds ratio [OR] 0.50, 95% CI 0.12-1.96, P=.02) than among men, lower for parents older than 30 years (OR 0.17, 95% CI 0.14-1.70, P=.01) compared to parents younger than 30 years, higher among parents who had an education (OR 1.63, 95% CI 1.11-5.80, P=.04) than among illiterate parents, and higher among parents with a monthly household income over 7000 Bangladeshi Taka (approximately US $82.54; OR 1.27, 95% CI 1.06-1.96, P=.05) than among parents whose monthly income was less than 7000 Bangladeshi Taka.

CONCLUSIONS: The high percentage of mobile phone use and the acceptability of SMS text messages for parents for the prevention of child drowning are encouraging, in terms of identifying the best strategy for using such technologies, and deserve further evaluation.