The Journal of mHealth Vol 1 Issue 1 (Feb 2014)

RUSSIA Health & Development Foundation - Survey The Health and Development Founda on Na onal Survey Among Par cipants of the Maternal and Child mHealth Program The Journal of mHealth, 01 (2014) pp 40-47 Received: 06 February 2014 Dr. Elena Dmitrieva, Sergei Frolov, Marina Grishina, Sara Buzadzhi, Venera Malakhova Health and Development Foundation, 107031, Moscow, Kuznetskiy most 19, b.1, Russia Keywords: SMSmame, mHealth Russia, Text4Baby, Child Health, Maternity ABSTRACT SMSmame, “SMS to Mom” in Russian, also known as Text4baby Russia, is a free national service sending new and expectant mothers in Russia text messages to their mobile phones with information on caring for their own health and the health of their children. This program is based on the successful U.S. maternal and child health initiative, text4baby, and was developed under the auspices of the U.S.-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission in 20102011 and launched nationwide in Russia by the Health and Development Foundation (HDF) in February 2012. Text4baby Russia is intended as a general health guideline and system of reminders that encourages women to engage in healthy behaviors and visit their doctors in accordance with a generally accepted timeline. These reminders are also intended to jumpstart conversations between mothers and doctors, and motivate subscribers to seek out additional information from other reliable sources, by notifying women of early warning signs of health problems or introducing new information. Subscribers are also able to participate in free, live webinars with medical experts on text message topics. The program had over 50,000 participants as of the end of 2013. HDF conducted a national survey during April-October 2013 among 751 respondents from 64 Russian regions. Of these, 49 respondents were interviewed at the Federal Kulakov Centre for Obstetrics, Gynaecology, and Perinatology on April 2, 2013. These respondents (pregnant women) were attending two classes led by medical specialists at the centre on the ﬁrst anniversary of 40 February 2014 the SMSmame program launch. The other respondents were reached through an Internet survey in September-October 2013. Of these, 50 were pregnant, and 652 were mothers whose children were under one year of age. The Health and Development Foundation recently carried out a national survey among participants of its maternal and child mHealth program, SMSmame. This program (“SMS to Mom” in Russian, also known as Text4baby Russia) provides new and expectant mothers with free text messages to their mobile phones with information on caring for their own health [

The Journal of mHealth Vol 1 Issue 1 (Feb 2014) | Page 42