Health workers treating malaria in Kenya became more efficient when prompted by text messages, according to a new study published in The Lancet medical journal. The study compared two groups of health workers: one who received SMS-based reminders about applying treatment guidelines for malaria patients and a second group who did not.  The first group demonstrated a 23.7 percent improvement in how they followed treatment guidelines immediately after starting to receive text messages. Six months later the uptick was a touch higher at 24.5 percent.

The study, which was conducted by the Kenya Medical Research Institute and funded by the UK’s The Wellcome Trust, concluded that organisers of anti-malaria programmes in countries with limited resources  “should consider the use of text messaging to improve health workers’ case-management practices.”

The study was conducted in 107 rural health clinics in 11 districts in two parts of Kenya, its coastal and western regions. Treatment guidelines involved dispensing an anti-malaria drug and counselling patients. The group receiving SMS reminders was made up of 119 healthworkers who were treating a total of 1,157 patients. The health workers were aware of the study but patients were not. The study ran between early March 2009 and end-May the following year.