Mobile Phone Usage and Willingness to Receive Health Care Tips among Patients Attending NCD Clinic in a Tertiary Carecentre, Pondicherry

Background: To implement mHealth interventions for control of non-communicable diseases, it is essential to know the readiness among the target population, Among diabetes and hypertension patients attending NCD clinic, tertiary care centre, Puducherry, to describe mobile phone availability and knowledge regarding operation of mobile phones and to study the willingness to receive health related information

Methodology: A facility based cross-sectional study was conducted among diabetes and hypertension patients attending NCD clinic at a tertiary care centre, Puducherry during July and August 2018. The patients were interviewed using a semi structured, pre-tested questionnaire after obtaining informed consent. Information on demography, mobile phone availability, knowledge on mobile phone usage and willingness to receive health related information was collected. Data were entered in Epi Data 3.1 and analysed using SPSS 17

Results: Of total 300 participants, mean (SD) age was 53 ± (7.6) years. Nearly 60% were females. Almost more than half of the patients had diabetes. Personal mobile phone was with 253(84.3%) patients. Of total 300 patients, all knew to receive a call, 95% knew to make a call. Regarding SMS, 30.8% and 28% know to read SMS and text SMS respectively. Willingness to receive health information was reported by 269 (89.6) patients; 81% preferring voice calls.

Conclusion: Four out of five NCD patients attending tertiary care have personal mobile phone. Willingness to receive health information was also very high. Hence the effective use of mobile phone technology in health care delivery may play a vital role in the management of non-communicable disease.