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Attitudes Toward a Proposed GPS-Based Location Tracking Smartphone App for Improving Engagement in HIV Care Among Pregnant and Postpartum Women in South Africa: Focus Group and Interview Study

BACKGROUND: Peripartum women living with HIV in South Africa are at high risk of dropping out of care and are also a particularly mobile population, which may impact their engagement in HIV care. With the rise in mobile phone use worldwide, there is an opportunity to use smartphones and GPS location...

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Autores principales: Clouse, Kate, Phillips, Tamsin K, Mogoba, Phepo, Ndlovu, Linda, Bassett, Jean, Myer, Landon
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: JMIR Publications 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7899801/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33555261
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/19243
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author Clouse, Kate
Phillips, Tamsin K
Mogoba, Phepo
Ndlovu, Linda
Bassett, Jean
Myer, Landon
author_facet Clouse, Kate
Phillips, Tamsin K
Mogoba, Phepo
Ndlovu, Linda
Bassett, Jean
Myer, Landon
author_sort Clouse, Kate
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Peripartum women living with HIV in South Africa are at high risk of dropping out of care and are also a particularly mobile population, which may impact their engagement in HIV care. With the rise in mobile phone use worldwide, there is an opportunity to use smartphones and GPS location software to characterize mobility in real time. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to propose a smartphone app that could collect individual GPS locations to improve engagement in HIV care and to assess potential users’ attitudes toward the proposed app. METHODS: We conducted 50 in-depth interviews (IDIs) with pregnant women living with HIV in Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa, and 6 focus group discussions (FGDs) with 27 postpartum women living with HIV in Cape Town. Through an open-ended question in the IDIs, we categorized “positive,” “neutral,” or “negative” reactions to the proposed app and identified key quotations. For the FGD data, we grouped the text into themes, then analyzed it for patterns, concepts, and associations and selected illustrative quotations. RESULTS: In the IDIs, the majority of participants (76%, 38/50) responded favorably to the proposed app. Favorable comments were related to the convenience of facilitated continued care, a sense of helpfulness on the part of the researchers and facilities, and the difficulties of trying to maintain care while traveling. Among the 4/50 participants (8%) who responded negatively, their comments were primarily related to the individual’s responsibility for their own health care. The FGDs revealed four themes: facilitating connection to care, informed choice, disclosure (intentional or unintentional), and trust in researchers. CONCLUSIONS: Women living with HIV were overwhelmingly positive about the idea of a GPS-based smartphone app to improve engagement in HIV care. Participants reported that they would welcome a tool to facilitate connection to care when traveling and expressed trust in researchers and health care facilities. Within the context of the rapid increase of smartphone use in South Africa, these early results warrant further exploration and critical evaluation following real-world experience with the app.
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spelling pubmed-78998012021-03-02 Attitudes Toward a Proposed GPS-Based Location Tracking Smartphone App for Improving Engagement in HIV Care Among Pregnant and Postpartum Women in South Africa: Focus Group and Interview Study Clouse, Kate Phillips, Tamsin K Mogoba, Phepo Ndlovu, Linda Bassett, Jean Myer, Landon JMIR Form Res Original Paper BACKGROUND: Peripartum women living with HIV in South Africa are at high risk of dropping out of care and are also a particularly mobile population, which may impact their engagement in HIV care. With the rise in mobile phone use worldwide, there is an opportunity to use smartphones and GPS location software to characterize mobility in real time. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to propose a smartphone app that could collect individual GPS locations to improve engagement in HIV care and to assess potential users’ attitudes toward the proposed app. METHODS: We conducted 50 in-depth interviews (IDIs) with pregnant women living with HIV in Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa, and 6 focus group discussions (FGDs) with 27 postpartum women living with HIV in Cape Town. Through an open-ended question in the IDIs, we categorized “positive,” “neutral,” or “negative” reactions to the proposed app and identified key quotations. For the FGD data, we grouped the text into themes, then analyzed it for patterns, concepts, and associations and selected illustrative quotations. RESULTS: In the IDIs, the majority of participants (76%, 38/50) responded favorably to the proposed app. Favorable comments were related to the convenience of facilitated continued care, a sense of helpfulness on the part of the researchers and facilities, and the difficulties of trying to maintain care while traveling. Among the 4/50 participants (8%) who responded negatively, their comments were primarily related to the individual’s responsibility for their own health care. The FGDs revealed four themes: facilitating connection to care, informed choice, disclosure (intentional or unintentional), and trust in researchers. CONCLUSIONS: Women living with HIV were overwhelmingly positive about the idea of a GPS-based smartphone app to improve engagement in HIV care. Participants reported that they would welcome a tool to facilitate connection to care when traveling and expressed trust in researchers and health care facilities. Within the context of the rapid increase of smartphone use in South Africa, these early results warrant further exploration and critical evaluation following real-world experience with the app. JMIR Publications 2021-02-08 /pmc/articles/PMC7899801/ /pubmed/33555261 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/19243 Text en ©Kate Clouse, Tamsin K Phillips, Phepo Mogoba, Linda Ndlovu, Jean Bassett, Landon Myer. Originally published in JMIR Formative Research (http://formative.jmir.org), 08.02.2021. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Formative Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://formative.jmir.org, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
spellingShingle Original Paper
Clouse, Kate
Phillips, Tamsin K
Mogoba, Phepo
Ndlovu, Linda
Bassett, Jean
Myer, Landon
Attitudes Toward a Proposed GPS-Based Location Tracking Smartphone App for Improving Engagement in HIV Care Among Pregnant and Postpartum Women in South Africa: Focus Group and Interview Study
title Attitudes Toward a Proposed GPS-Based Location Tracking Smartphone App for Improving Engagement in HIV Care Among Pregnant and Postpartum Women in South Africa: Focus Group and Interview Study
title_full Attitudes Toward a Proposed GPS-Based Location Tracking Smartphone App for Improving Engagement in HIV Care Among Pregnant and Postpartum Women in South Africa: Focus Group and Interview Study
title_fullStr Attitudes Toward a Proposed GPS-Based Location Tracking Smartphone App for Improving Engagement in HIV Care Among Pregnant and Postpartum Women in South Africa: Focus Group and Interview Study
title_full_unstemmed Attitudes Toward a Proposed GPS-Based Location Tracking Smartphone App for Improving Engagement in HIV Care Among Pregnant and Postpartum Women in South Africa: Focus Group and Interview Study
title_short Attitudes Toward a Proposed GPS-Based Location Tracking Smartphone App for Improving Engagement in HIV Care Among Pregnant and Postpartum Women in South Africa: Focus Group and Interview Study
title_sort attitudes toward a proposed gps-based location tracking smartphone app for improving engagement in hiv care among pregnant and postpartum women in south africa: focus group and interview study
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7899801/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33555261
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/19243
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