The Journal of mHealth Vol 1 Issue 1 (Feb 2014) | Page 42

RUSSIA

Health & Development Foundation - Survey

The Health and Development
Founda on Na onal Survey Among
Par cipants of the Maternal and
Child mHealth Program
The Journal of mHealth, 01 (2014) pp 40-47
Received: 06 February 2014

Dr. Elena Dmitrieva, Sergei Frolov, Marina Grishina, Sara Buzadzhi, Venera Malakhova
Health and Development Foundation, 107031, Moscow, Kuznetskiy most 19, b.1, Russia
Keywords: SMSmame, mHealth Russia, Text4Baby, Child Health, Maternity

ABSTRACT
SMSmame, “SMS to Mom” in Russian, also known as Text4baby Russia, is a free national service sending new and expectant mothers in Russia text messages to their mobile phones with
information on caring for their own health and the health of their
children.
This program is based on the successful U.S. maternal and child
health initiative, text4baby, and was developed under the auspices
of the U.S.-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission in 20102011 and launched nationwide in Russia by the Health and Development Foundation (HDF) in February 2012.
Text4baby Russia is intended as a general health guideline and
system of reminders that encourages women to engage in healthy behaviors and visit their doctors in accordance with a generally accepted
timeline. These reminders are also intended to jumpstart conversations between mothers and doctors, and motivate subscribers to seek
out additional information from other reliable sources, by notifying
women of early warning signs of health problems or introducing
new information.
Subscribers are also able to participate in free, live webinars with
medical experts on text message topics. The program had over
50,000 participants as of the end of 2013.
HDF conducted a national survey during April-October 2013
among 751 respondents from 64 Russian regions. Of these, 49
respondents were interviewed at the Federal Kulakov Centre for
Obstetrics, Gynaecology, and Perinatology on April 2, 2013. These
respondents (pregnant women) were attending two classes led by
medical specialists at the centre on the first anniversary of

40
February 2014

the SMSmame program launch. The other respondents were reached
through an Internet survey in September-October 2013. Of these,
50 were pregnant, and 652 were mothers whose children were under
one year of age.

The Health and Development Foundation recently
carried out a national survey among participants
of its maternal and child mHealth program, SMSmame. This program (“SMS to Mom” in Russian,
also known as Text4baby Russia) provides new and
expectant mothers with free text messages to their
mobile phones with information on caring for their
own health [