Women's Cellphone Access and Ownership in Rural Uganda: Implications for Self-care Interventions

Overview

Journal BMC Glob Public Health

Specialty Public Health

Date 2024 Dec 16

PMID 39681893

Authors

Willow Leahy

Maryam Abomoslim

Amy Booth

Anna Gottschlich

Nelly Mwandacha

Hallie Dau

Priscilla Naguti

Beth Payne

Laurie Smith

Carolyn Nakisige

Gina Ogilvie

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) call for cervical cancer elimination includes increasing global cervical screening coverage. HPV-based self-collection (HPV-SC) is a promising screening model for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and while digital technology, such as cellphones, can be used to streamline HPV-SC, there is limited data on digital technology penetration in LMICs. Determining women's cellphone access is critical to understanding the feasibility of using cellphones to support HPV-SC.

Methods: This study is a secondary analysis of a larger clinical trial. Participants of a cluster-randomized trial comparing HPV-SC models in Uganda completed a survey, including questions about demographics, cellphone access/ownership, prior cervical cancer screening (CCS), and willingness to receive CCS information by text. A logistic regression model was used to determine adjusted rates of cellphone ownership using survey variables as factors.

Results: Of 2019 participants, 76.1% owned a cellphone. In non-cellphone owners (n = 483), 82.4% had daily cellphone access and 7.3% had no access. Compared to non-cellphone owners, cellphone owners were significantly older, more educated, closer to major health centers, more likely to have prior CCS, and more willing to receive a CCS text. In the logistic regression model, the aforementioned variables were all significantly associated with the odds of owning a cellphone.

Conclusions: As health care systems consider adopting HPV-SC, it is imperative to understand digital technology penetration. The majority of participants were cellphone owners and were willing to receive CCS information by text; however, significant socioeconomic and demographic differences remain between cellphone owners and non-owners. Further investigation is needed to understand whether HPV-SC using cellphones is feasible in similar settings.

Trial Registration: ISRCTN, 12767014 .

Clinicaltrials: gov, NCT04000503 .

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