You Have an Important Message! Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Text Message HIV/AIDS Campaign in Northwest Uganda

There is a growing interest in the effect of mobile phones in health care (mHealth) service delivery, but more research is needed to determine whether short message service (SMS)-based campaigns are appropriate for developing countries. This pilot study explored the efficacy of an mHealth campaign using SMS as a platform to disseminate and measure HIV/AIDS knowledge, and to promote HIV/AIDS testing at clinics in rural Uganda. Over a 1-month period, 13 HIV/AIDS quiz questions were sent to 10,000 mobile subscribers. Despite participation incentives, only one-fifth of the mobile subscribers responded to any of the questions. The campaign had proportionately limited success in increasing knowledge levels on a mass scale. Furthermore, the program design may be reinforcing entrenched knowledge gaps. The results suggest that it is important to be conservative when considering the potential overall effect of SMS-based programs. However, the authors recognize the potential of mHealth tools when extended to millions of mobile phone users as part of an integrated health campaign approach. The authors propose several steps to improve the program design to reach a larger portion of the intended audience and increase campaign effectiveness.