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The problem
Intervention: Information and communication technology (ICT) applications, primarily reminder systems for caregivers and healthcare workers
Who it was tested with: Children in low- and middle-income countries (27 studies, 354,979 children).
Children or communities are compared with a group that did not receive the intervention, or followed over years. This is the design that best separates what the intervention did from everything else that changed.
"A systematic search from January 2010 to August 2023 in MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, BMJ Health & Care Informatics, and grey literature was performed. This search focused on randomised controlled trials (RCTs), non-RCTs, observational, and mixed-methods studies in English, examining ICT's effects on childhood immunisation in LMICs." The meta-analysis combined effect sizes from multiple studies with comparison groups to estimate population-level effectiveness of ICT interventions on immunisation outcomes.
High heterogeneity (I² 82–89%) indicates variable effects across contexts. Quality concerns include unblinded outcome assessors in RCTs, baseline differences in quasi-experimental studies, and unclear integration of qualitative and quantitative data in mixed-methods studies. Most studies were from specific regions, limiting generalisability.
Across countries and designs
1 study · 2 countries
