Smartphone Ownership is Not a Proxy for Digital Literacy: Improving Digital Literacy Among Women of Reproductive Age (WRA) in Nigeria

Nigeria boasts the largest smartphone ownership in Africa. However, smartphone ownership alone does not equate to digital literacy, especially when it comes to women of reproductive age (WRA) and digital health services. It's crucial to go beyond merely providing health information on a website, mobile application, or USSD. Women must be taught how to effectively and efficiently use their smartphones as tools for healthcare and self-care support, particularly in managing chronic conditions like diabetes, hypertension, and maternal health issues.

 

As a digital healthcare social enterprise serving low- to middle-income populations in Nigeria and across Africa, mDoc focuses on improving digital literacy and self-efficacy among WRA. Our approach involves understanding and addressing the local issues that affect women's healthcare access. We aim to transform healthcare access and enhance the care experience using quality improvement methodologies, data, behavioral science, and technology to meet the chronic healthcare needs of WRA.

 

A Personalized Hybrid Approach Through mDoc's Women's Wellness Program

Our Women’s Wellness Program uses a hybrid approach combining our omnichannel health coach-led self-care digital platform, CompleteHealth™, and in-person community NudgeHubs™ and roving community ambassadors. Health coaches provide personalized, evidence-based self-care tips to WRA living with or at risk for chronic health conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, cancer, depression and anxiety as well as reproductive health issues. Currently, over 96,000 WRA are enrolled on the CompleteHealth™ platform. In a country with a shortage of healthcare workers, empowering WRA with self-care management strategies is a practical solution for improving chronic healthcare treatment and management.

 

Our team conducts regular surveys on digital literacy among cohorts of WRA in our program to identify those needing digital navigation support. In one survey, 79% of the women had smartphones, but only 4.6% could navigate digital applications like CompleteHealth™, Telegram, and Zoom.

 

Strategies for Improving Digital Literacy and Self-Care Efficacy

To address this, our teams implement strategies to improve digital literacy through virtual coaching, infographics, tele-education, and in-person demonstrations at our hubs. A follow-up survey conducted three months later with 119 WRA showed that 73% of the women felt more comfortable using these platforms for their health than before they enrolled on CompleteHealth™.

 

Increasing Self-Efficacy During Our Reducing Indirect Causes of Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Project

During the 3-year RICOM3 project (2019-2022), in partnership with Jhpiego and the Health Strategy Delivery Foundation, we found that despite the high smartphone ownership (67%) among the enrolled women, their health and digital literacy levels were lower than expected. This required significant investment from our coaches to build their capabilities. mDoc's multimodal platform, CompleteHealth™, enabled coaches to engage with women who had basic or feature phones through SMS and mobile calls.

 

As a result, there was an increase in women’s health knowledge, with an average boost of 38.32% in self-confidence in managing their health and chronic diseases. Additionally, the percentage of women with basic knowledge of the indirect causes of maternal mortality and morbidity, risk factors, and self-care interventions increased from 32.54% to 84.26% following registration and support on the mDoc’s CompleteHealth™ platform.

 

Empowering Women to Navigate Digital Healthcare with Confidence

Through our geo-coded repository of healthcare facilities, Navihealth™, women could understand where to go for care by exploring listed facilities on the platform and were taught how to provide digital reviews about their care experiences. Regular care linkage meetings between coaches and facility quality improvement teams fostered alignment, shared women’s qualitative feedback, and strengthened relationships between mDoc health coaches and RICOM3-supported facilities, ensuring higher-quality care delivery to women.

 

mDoc is proud of its work in building digital literacy among WRA enrolled in the Women's Wellness Program, empowering them to take charge of their health and navigate the digital healthcare landscape with confidence. By providing personalized support, self-care strategies, and digital literacy training, mDoc is revolutionizing chronic disease management and maternal health outcomes for women in Nigeria.