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mHealth and the management of chronic conditions in rural areas a note of caution from southern India.pdf (647.39 kB)

mHealth and the management of chronic conditions in rural areas: a note of caution from southern India

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posted on 2023-06-09, 20:09 authored by Papreen NaharPapreen Nahar, Nanda Kishore Kannuri, Sitamma Mikkilineni, G V S Murthy, Peter Phillimore
This article examines challenges facing implementation of likely mHealth programmes in rural India. Based on ?eldwork in Andhra Pradesh in 2014, and taking as exemplars two chronic medical ‘conditions’–type 2 diabetes and depression – we look at ways in which people in one rural area currently access medical treatment; we also explore how adults there currently use mobile phones in daily life, to gauge the realistic likelihood of uptake for possible mHealth initiatives. We identify the very different pathways to care for these two medical conditions, and we highlight the importance to the rural population of healthcare outside the formal health system provided by those known as registered medical practitioners (RMP), who despite their title are neither registered nor trained. We also show how limited is the use currently made of very basic mobile phones by the majority of the older adult population in this rural context. Not only may this inhibit mHealth potential in the near future; just as importantly, our data suggest how dif?cult it may be to identify a clinical partner for patients or their carers for any mHealth application designed to assist the management of chronic ill-health in rural India. Finally, we examine how the promotion of patient ‘self-management’ may not be as readily translated to a country like India as proponents of mHealth might assume.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

Anthropology & Medicine

ISSN

1364-8470

Publisher

Taylor & Francis online

Issue

1

Volume

24

Page range

1-16

Department affiliated with

  • BSMS Publications

Research groups affiliated with

  • Brighton and Sussex Centre for Global Health Research Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2020-01-08

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2020-01-08

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2020-01-07

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