How Can Mobile Health Technology Improve Usage and Delivery of the COVID-19 Vaccine in Low- and Middle-Income Countries?

Abstract

Background: Mobile health projects have been implemented all over the world, using mobile phones for record keeping, data collection, or patient communication. Further, mobile health tools have been used to promote behavior change in health workers and/or patients. For example, text message reminders have been shown to increase health care seeking behavior or medication adherence in some patients, and mobile data collection and communication tools for health workers have improved follow-up of patients and data reporting. Methods: This literature review was conducted through a keyword search of the following databases to identify relevant peer-reviewed articles: Google Scholar, PubMed, Embase, and EKB. Keywords used in these searches included mHealth, mobile health, mobile phone, coverage, usage, delivery, vaccination, immunization and COVID-19. Results: Eleven studies satisfied the inclusion criteria were included. They examined awareness, applications, challenges and strengths of Mobile-Health applications. All studies showed some evidence that mHealth intervention had a positive impact on increasing the coverage and use of COVID-19 vaccine. Bad awareness of people was strongly associated with declines in vaccination intent. The use of mobile applications has made a great revolution in tracking and data gathering about vaccination status. The main limitations were reporting bias and malfunctioning of mobile applications. The main strengths were getting real-time data, improving surveillance, using geographic mapping to monitor populations. Conclusion: Growing usage of smartphone and internet penetration in African countries opens the door to mHealth applications such as health literacy, vaccine supply and control, disease monitoring and intervention, and virtual consultations with health professionals around the world.