The Impact of mHealth Programs on Health Outcomes in Uganda

mHealth is an emerging field within healthcare which incorporates the use of mobile devices into patient care. Implementations of mHealth have become increasingly popular in recent years, especially within developing countries. These programs are credited for their small infrastructural overheads, low maintenance costs, improved information accessibility and potential to provide necessary healthcare resources and information to the poorest communities. However, there exists scant quantitative evidence confirming if mHealth implementations improve individual health outcomes. This study utilizes individual level panel data from 2005 and 2010 for Uganda and a double difference estimation strategy to identify the actual impact of mHealth programs on health outcomes in the country. Individuals living in mHealth areas suffered from illness for one-third of a day less compared to their counterparts in non-mHealth areas. The findings suggest that children between the ages of 0-5 benefited most from mHealth. Gains from mHealth were greater for individuals under female headed households compared to individuals under male headed households. A secondary finding of this paper is that mHealth programs helped reduce health inequality resulting from differences in education.