Effect of Using Mobile Phone Communication on Morbidity and Health Seeking Behavior of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients at Kitui County Referral Hospital, Kenya

Abstract

There is an increasing prevalence of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) in Kenya. This is despite the implementations of various interventions to prevent and manage the condition. Despite increasing use of mobile phone communication in Kenya, this technology has not been utilized in management of T2DM, though it has been applied in other countries. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of using mobile phone communication on the morbidity and health seeking behavior of T2DM patients. The study was conducted among 138 patients attending the diabetes clinic at Kitui County Referral Hospital. A pretested questionnaire was used to collect data on socio economic characteristics, morbidity status and health seeking behavior at the baseline and after mobile phone based intervention. There was a greater decline in morbidity in the experimental group (35.8% to 22.4%) compared to the control group (31% to 29.6%). The difference between groups was significant (OR=0.48; 95% CI= 0.27-0.85), p<0.05). The proportion of respondents with controlled blood pressure (BP) increased in experimental group (44.8% to 49.3%) compared to a reduction in the control group (53.5% to 47.9%). The effect of the intervention was significant (p<0.05). Self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) increased from 32.8% to 41.8% in experimental group while it reduced from 39.4% to 31% in control group. The effect of the intervention was statistically significant (p<0.05). This study concludes that use of mobile phone communication led to significant decrease in morbidity prevalence and an increase in the proportion of T2DM patients that carried out self-monitoring of blood glucose in T2DM patients while it did not have a significant effect on glycemic control, diabetes clinic attendance and monitoring of feet health.