This paper summarizes the evidence base for CommCare and closely related mobile health applications. We reviewed all published papers and unpublished (gray literature) studies about the CommCare platform, all published papers on pertinent, alternative mobile health systems, and several papers on highly relevant topics. This collection of 34 papers offers substantial evidence that CommCare improves access, quality, experience and accountability for frontline workers.
CommCare Evidence Base November 2013.pdf
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CommCare has an evidence base of more than 100 peer-reviewed studies, including eight randomized controlled trials. Together, these studies demonstrate CommCare’s positive impact on strengthening frontline healthcare systems, frontline worker capabilities, and client results. You can download the CommCare Evidence Base from Dimagi's here. |
Dimagi maintains the CommCare Evidence Base and adds new studies as they are discovered. A summary of key highlights can be found here: https://www.dimagi.com/toolkits/commcare-evidence-base/. Some of the featured studies from the Evidence Base Summary include:
Within the CommCare Evidence Base, two RCTs -- one in India and one in Tanzania -- demonstrate that clients of community health workers using CommCare have better behaviors and outcomes than the clients of community health workers who don’t use CommCare.
A 2015 Mathematica RCT found improved client behaviors among clients of FLWs using CommCare, including a 73% increase in ANC Visits, 58% increase in consumption of iron tablets, and a 36% increase in the use of contraception (Borkhum, 2015).
An RCT in Tanzania documented a 74% institutional delivery rate for clients whose FLWs use CommCare, compared to a 63% institutional delivery rate in the control group (Hackett 2018).
Over 10 years, scaling CommCare in Uttar Pradesh averted 149,468 neonatal deaths - or a 5.3% total reduction of neonatal deaths (Prinja 2018).
A 2017 study in India found that CommCare is more cost-effective than cholera and typhoid vaccines (Prinja, 2017).
This resource lives as an online, up-to-date repository, with new studies being shared and published frequently. This can be accessed here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/160io42Nalm7hDbDULHSxEoSyiVMEZdWL9ZghPApC1aQ/edit#gid=0
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