Seminar Recording: Gender Considerations in Mobile Health Data Collection

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Seminar Recording: Gender Considerations in Mobile Health Data Collection

1 hour 22 minutes

This seminar provides an overview of gender considerations used in mobile phone survey health data collection. Examples in reproductive health, COVID, and household surveys in Bangladesh and India will be showcased.

Watch Webinar here:

Key takeaways

Women in rural regions, those of ethnic minorities and lower socioeconomic status, and those living in violent households have less access to mobile phones than do men.
Four strategies for improving women’s response rates to mobile phone surveys collecting health and cause of death (CoD) data are: 1) Speaking to both men and women in the same household. This can help reduce gaps and inconsistencies in a household story. 2) Creating survey questions with the safety and security of female and non-binary household members in mind. This is a critical consideration for people living in violent households, as abusers are often likely to be in proximity to respondents at the time of an interactive voice response (IVR) call. 3) Scheduling time for appointments and call-backs. This mitigates the issue of men primarily answering calls and low phone-passing rates to women and non-binary members of the household. 4) Training more women and people who are non-binary to be part of survey teams. This can help overcome female and non-binary respondents’ challenges in discussing sensitive heath topics with male enumerators (data collectors) by mobile phone.

This seminar first aired live on March 24, 2022.

Moderator: June Sugiyama, Vodafone Americas Foundation

Speakers:

Dr. Krishna Yafa, CEO, Medic
Dr. Alain Labrique, Johns Hopkins University, International Health, Data for Health
Divya Nair, Director, IDinsight

Many low and middle-income countries (LMICs) seek cost-effective methods to obtain timely and quality health data. One goal of the Data for Health Initiative is to find affordable, scalable solutions to cost-effective collection methods of non-communicable disease (NCD) risk factor data that can be used to inform resource allocation, policy development, and assess NCD trends over time.

Mobile phone technology is omnipresent in many LMICs and presents an untapped opportunity for using population-level health surveys. There is, however, a gender gap in data collection, analysis, and usage within mobile phone health surveillance efforts. Further evidence of the relationship between mobile devices and women and people who are non-binary’s societal roles is needed in order to gather representative data via mobile phones in LMICs.

This seminar gives an overview of gender considerations used in mobile phone survey health data collection. Examples of the integration of a gender framework in mobile phone data collection in reproductive health, COVID, and household surveys in Bangladesh and India are showcased.

Male gatekeeping of household phones means they are often the first to pick up calls and may police women’s communication with strangers from unknown phone numbers.

TAGS:

BangladeshCOVID-19Data CollectionIndiamHealthMobile phonesNCDs

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GENDER EQUITY UNIT