| dc.description.abstract | HIV/AJDS has placed a very big burden on the health system in Kenya with Lf million
people living with HTV in Kenya and up to 80,000 people dying from the disease
annually. The Kenyan government's free antiretroviral (ARV) programme has reached
more than 360,000 people in need of the life-prolonging therapy and this number is
projected to rise to 540,000 by the end 0[20] 1 and 770,000 by the end of2013. Unless
this momentum is accompanied by an equally aggressive treatment literacy campaign,
widespread drug resistance could result. Adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) is one
of the strongest predictors of progression to AIDS and death among people living with
HIV/AIDS and near perfect (>95%) compliance is required for both immediate and longterm
clinical success.
Kenya is still lagging behind in HIV treatment literacy and due to the overstretching of
health personnel and facilities by the HIV crisis in Kenya, there is need for a better,
cheaper, more available health information model that has been proved to have efficacy
and can have a wide reach. Existing models are expensive and ineffective.
In Kenya there are 22 million mobile phone subscribers representing a penetration of 55.9
for every 100 inhabitants. The cost of owning and operating a mobile phone has
drastically reduced over the years and this has made mobile phones the ICT of choice in
Kenya. This research was seeking to establish the viability of using mobile phones as a
HIV intervention option for Kenya and the form it should take.
The research was conducted through the use of questionnaires, interviews and documents
review. A total of 222 valid questionnaires were completed by healthcare consumers and
118 by healthcare providers. The data was analyzed using SPSS statistical software. The
results demonstrated that mobile phones are currently not being extensively used in the
provision of health care services. They also established that both healthcare consumers
and providers were of the opinion that ways should be found to provide healthcare
services to HIV/AIDS patients using mobile phones. A number of concerns were raised,
the major one being that of medical data security and protection of patients' privacy. A
model for the provision of health care services to HIV/AIDS patients using mobile phones
was developed based on the findings of the study. | en |
