title: Effectiveness of advertising availability of prenatal ultrasound on uptake of antenatal care in rural Uganda: A cluster randomized trial.
abstract: In rural Uganda pregnant women often lack access to health services, do not attend antenatal care, and tend to utilize traditional healers/birth attendants. We hypothesized that receiving a message advertising that "you will be able to see your baby by ultrasound" would motivate rural Ugandan women who otherwise might use a traditional birth attendant to attend antenatal care, and that those women would subsequently be more satisfied with care. A cluster randomized trial was conducted across eight rural sub-counties in southwestern Uganda. Sub-counties were randomized to a control arm, with advertisement of antenatal care with no mention of portable obstetric ultrasound (four communities, n = 59), or an intervention arm, with advertisement of portable obstetric ultrasound. Advertisement of portable obstetric ultrasound was further divided into intervention A) word of mouth advertisement of portable obstetric ultrasound and antenatal care (one communitity, n = 16), B) radio advertisement of only antenatal care and word of mouth advertisement of antenatal care and portable obstetric ultrasound (one community, n = 7), or C) word of mouth + radio advertisement of both antenatal care and portable obstetric ultrasound (two communities, n = 75). The primary outcome was attendance to antenatal care. 159 women presented to antenatal care across eight sub-counties. The rate of attendance was 65.1 (per 1000 pregnant women, 95% CI 38.3-110.4) where portable obstetric ultrasound was advertised by radio and word of mouth, as compared to a rate of 11.1 (95% CI 6.1-20.1) in control communities (rate ratio 5.9, 95% CI 2.6-13.0, p<0.0001). Attendance was also improved in women who had previously seen a traditional healer (13.0, 95% CI 5.4-31.2) compared to control (1.5, 95% CI 0.5-5.0, rate ratio 8.7, 95% CI 2.0-38.1, p = 0.004). By advertising antenatal care and portable obstetric ultrasound by radio attendance was significantly improved. This study suggests that women can be motivated to attend antenatal care when offered the concrete incentive of seeing their baby.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family and Community Medicine, Division of Emergency Medicine, The Markham-Stouffville Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.|Bridge to Health Medical and Dental, Toronto, Canada.
authors.forename: William
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3001-2400
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Cherniak
authors.affiliation: Kigezi Healthcare Foundation, and Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Kabale, Uganda.
authors.forename: Geoffrey
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Anguyo
authors.affiliation: Department of Family and Community Medicine, Division of Emergency Medicine, The Markham-Stouffville Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Meaney
authors.affiliation: Bridge to Health Medical and Dental, Toronto, Canada.|Department of Internal Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
authors.forename: Ling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yuan Kong
authors.affiliation: Bridge to Health Medical and Dental, Toronto, Canada.|Department of Internal Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
authors.forename: Isabelle
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Malhame
authors.affiliation: Bridge to Health Medical and Dental, Toronto, Canada.|Department of Internal Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
authors.forename: Romina
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pace
authors.affiliation: Department of Family and Community Medicine, Division of Emergency Medicine, The Markham-Stouffville Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.|Department of Family and Community Medicine, Toronto Western Hospital, University Health Network, Toronto, Canada.
authors.forename: Sumeet
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sodhi
authors.affiliation: Bridge to Health Medical and Dental, Toronto, Canada.|Division of Infectious Diseases, Western University, London, Canada.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Silverman
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000329:Advertising; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D011247:Pregnancy; D011295:Prenatal Care; D011845:Radio; D012424:Rural Population; D014454:Uganda; D016216:Ultrasonography, Prenatal / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055815:Young Adult