Effectiveness of Mobile Call Reminders and Health Information Booklet to Improve Postnatal Blood Glucose Monitoring among Mothers with Gestational Diabetes Mellitus Receiving Care from a Tertiary Health Centre, Puducherry - A Randomized Controlled Trial

BACKGROUND: In India, around 10% of mothers with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) develop diabetes within months after delivery. But only 29% of them undergo blood glucose testing in the postnatal period. Our study aimed to compare the proportion of mothers with GDM who got postnatal blood glucose checked at 8 weeks among mothers who received health education booklets and mobile reminders. METHODS: We conducted a randomised controlled trial among 165 mothers with GDM receiving care from a tertiary health centre between January 2020 and June 2021. Mothers with GDM in the intervention 1 arm received a health education booklet in the third trimester, those in intervention 2 arm received mobile call reminders at the fourth and fifth weeks postpartum, control arm received standard care advised in the hospital; they were followed up at 8 weeks postnatally. We used Chi-square test to compare the effectiveness of intervention and standard care. Relative risk with a 95% confidence interval was calculated to measure the strength of association. A P value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: A total of 161 participants (97.58%) completed the study; Out of 55 mothers with GDM in each arm, 30 (56.60%) in the booklet arm, 23 (42.59%) in the mobile reminder arm, and 13 (24.07%) in the standard care arm had undergone postnatal blood glucose monitoring at 8 weeks. There was a statistically significant difference in the postnatal blood glucose monitoring in the booklet arm (RR: 2.21 [1.35–3.64], P value <0.002) compared to the control arm, but the difference was not significant in the mobile reminder arm (1.65 [0.96–2.86], P value 0.072). CONCLUSION: Health education booklet and mobile call reminders effectively improved postnatal visit compliance compared to standard care. We can diagnose mothers with GDM progressing to diabetes in the postnatal period by implementing these interventions.