Awareness of Mobile Health (mHealth) Interventions Among Health Information Management Professionals in Primary Health Care Facilities in Ilorin South, Kwara State, Nigeria

Abstract

Mobile health (mHealth) interventions offer considerable promise for strengthening antenatal care delivery within Primary Health Care (PHC) systems, yet their successful integration depends fundamentally on the awareness of the health workforce responsible for managing health information and mediating digital system use. This study assessed the level of awareness of mHealth interventions among Health Information Management (HIM) professionals working in PHC facilities in Ilorin South Local Government Area, Kwara State, Nigeria. A descriptive cross-sectional survey design was adopted. The accessible population comprised eighteen HIM professionals across six purposively selected PHC facilities, of whom seventeen were successfully surveyed (response rate = 94.4%), using a structured, expert-validated questionnaire (Cronbach's alpha = 0.84). Data were analysed using descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and a one-sample t-test against a criterion mean of 3.00, at the 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed a high overall level of awareness of mHealth interventions among HIM professionals, with a grand mean of 4.20 (SD = 0.75). Awareness was highest for SMS reminder systems (mean = 4.41) and mobile appointment reminders (mean = 4.29), and comparatively lower, though still high, for pregnancy-related mobile applications (mean = 3.94). A one-sample t-test confirmed that this level of awareness was statistically significant, t(16) = 6.60, p < .001, leading to rejection of the null hypothesis that there is no significant level of awareness of mHealth interventions among HIM professionals in the study area. The study concludes that awareness does not constitute a major barrier to mHealth adoption among HIM professionals in Ilorin South PHC facilities, and that implementation efforts should instead prioritise the institutional, infrastructural, and training conditions required to translate this existing awareness into sustained, effective practice. Findings are limited to the six facilities studied and should be interpreted with appropriate caution given the study's small sample size and single-Local-Government-Area scope.