Real-Time, Dynamic Capture of Contraceptive Behaviors, Experiences, and Needs of Kenyan Women

Alison Drake of the University of Washington Foundation, Global WACh in the U.S. will conduct an automated SMS-based survey to gather the opinions of women and adolescents on family planning methods in Kenya in order to characterize contraceptive use, reasons for discontinuation, and experience with side effects over a 6-month period that can help develop more acceptable methods. Current surveys capture only a single impression, whereas experiences can change over time. Using a mobile platform requires minimal personnel, and participants can register their opinions remotely. Adolescents will also be included. They will recruit 1,000 women and adolescents at five family planning clinics in Kenya and send them automated SMS messages weekly for six months that ask them to choose from numbered options regarding, for example, if and what side effects they are experiencing from their current family planning method. A monetary incentive will be offered for each SMS response.