Effect of a Text-Messaging Intervention on Oral Self-Care Practices in Antenatal Women in Delhi, India: A Pilot Randomized Control Trial

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine the effect of a mHealth (text message) intervention compared with a structured health educational session on the oral care and hygiene practices of pregnant women. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a pilot randomized control trial, parallel design superiority trial, with a 1:1 allocation ratio. A total of 76 pregnant women up to 20 weeks of gestational age and capable of reading mobile phone text messages were recruited during August–October 2020 from the antenatal clinic of a primary health center in a low-income urban agglomeration in Delhi, India. The mHealth intervention arm participants were sent a daily text message for 30 days, while all participants were provided a one-time, face-face, brief didactic structured educational session toward oral health promotion. RESULTS: The baseline characteristics of both groups were comparable in terms of age structure, education, parity, and oral hygiene but differed in terms of oral health problems. Postintervention, although the twice-brushing frequency increased in both arms, only the mHealth arm revealed a statistically significant reduction in the incidence of missed twice-daily brushing episodes (P = 0.016). CONCLUSIONS: A mHealth-based daily text-message intervention for 1 month was not superior to a one-time brief didactic structured educational intervention for oral health promotion in antenatal women.