The current issue of the “Journal of Global Health” features
a series on mHealth (the use of mobile devices in healthcare). mHealth has the potential
to play an important role in low– and middle–income countries in a wide range
of areas. A particular area with great potential to improve global health is
using mHealth for data collection. New ideas for mHealth implementation in this area are to validate and
conduct household surveys, to monitor large–scale programs, and to measure the global burden of disease.
The first article in the mHealth Series includes the aims
and objectives of an mHealth project, the field site in China, and the detailed
methods of two studies. In the second article, a conceptual model for measuring maternal,
newborn and child health coverage by text messaging in China is proposed. In the third article, the feasibility of using text
messaging to collect information on infant and young child feeding practice in
rural China is explored. In the fourth article, factors that influence sample size
calculations for mHealth–based studies are explored and strategies for
increasing the participation rate are suggested.
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