DOI: 10.5176/2251-3833_GHC18.107
Authors: Geoff Skinner, Richard Fletcher and Chris May
Abstract: Text base interventions have come to prominence over the last decade, due in part to the advances in Information and Communication Technologies and the proliferation of mobile phones. Particularly in the eHealth and health promotion domain, text-messaging interventions have shown a number of positive results. While the Health application context is broad and not quite saturated as of yet, the authors noted there was little in the way of supporting first time and new fathers. Further, new mothers have an increasing number of support services, including those in the eHealth domain, but fathers have not been so fortunate to date. With around 10% of fathers experience Paternal Perinatal Depression (PPND) and factoring in new fathers reluctance to seek help plus their limited contact with perinatal health services it has highlighted some serious mental health needs and issues. Using a mobile phone medium to reach these father’s provides an ideal platform to provide support, education, and method of contact. The authors have designed and developed one such Information and Communication Technology (ICT) based architecture, delivering a diversifying and evolving range of SMS4Dads platforms. This paper details the Randomized Control of the platform and a number of its evolving features.
Keywords: eHealth; Mobile Application; Web Technologies; Mood Checker; Mental Health
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