Factors affecting the adoption of ICT in malnutrition monitoring. Case study: Western Uganda
Tweheyo Pius Charles, Chika Yoshida · 2016
The government of Uganda has a decentralized structure of health service delivery that starts from Health center II to IV. These health centers are monitored by a medical practitioner ranging from a medical physician to a clinical officer. Reliable, timely and regimented information would be highly sufficient in combating malnutrition and elevate discussion amongst the population. Due to the rapid growth of technology, developing a more robust tool for archiving, retrieval and dissemination of accurate data/information would help a great deal with the current Micro and Macro indicators as a solution for the issues like global warming, economic inequality and disease. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to develop an ICT based solution that would improve situation assessment and information dissemination cause health-workers can't reach every household to acquire information for storage to use for reference and statistical analysis thus aid in propagation and display of information. Uganda is fairly covered with mobile network coverage where 8 out of 10 people can access mobile communication in rural and urban centers. The study uses both theoretical and practical approach to define the factors that fuel malnutrition and its other cause, how Information and Communication Technology tools can help to grasp the fact. Therefore, the developed tool will mainly have an SMS platform since the literacy rate in Uganda is estimated at 73.2%. The population that can't afford a smart phone to access a web-portal can use SMS on mobile phone. Therefore, the minor challenges include deployment of the developed tool, attitude of citizens towards technology, and the cost of an SMS to the section that can't for the bill. Also the function to translate the information to many different language where need might arise. Visa Vie, the challenges projected - the research will be able to come up with a conclusive scientific evidence on the impact of using Information Communication and Technology in cabbing the malnutrition predicament through using minimum tools.