Disseminating maternal health information to rural women: a user centered design framework

The delivery of primary health information to rural women is a considerable challenge for government and private sectors in rural India. This paper illustrates how by applying the proposed user centered framework dissemination of maternal health information to rural women can be improved. First, the paper presents baseline study to obtain existing knowledge level of women and design requirements for a Primary Health Information System (PHIS). Second, the paper presents a brief description of the PHIS system which was deployed in a village for sixteen months in rural India. Third, the paper explains longitudinal study conducted post intervention of PHIS to measure the impact of PHIS on the knowledge level and health behaviour of rural women in comparison to the baseline study. The results indicate that by following the proposed user centered approach to design the PHIS, a significant improvement in knowledge level of rural women and positive changes in health practices are achieved.