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Table 1 Various types of cost with the data sources and methodology

From: Cost analysis of implementing mHealth intervention for maternal, newborn & child health care through community health workers: assessment of ReMIND program in Uttar Pradesh, India

Area

Type of cost

Type of Data collected

Source of data

Method of data collection

At two block levels

Start up/Capital cost

Cost on Module development, translation & piloting. Development of software, Equipment and mobile cost, overheads.

Preplanning meetings, ASHA trainings

Official documents of CRS, Vatsalya & Dimagi. Annual budget reports, bills receipts, Personal Interviews

Primary data collection.

Time value contributed over the average age of the program

Implementation cost

Salaries, travel, ASHA internet usage, utilities like office rent, electricity, telephone bills, stationary and printing.

Program support cost at state and national office

Official documents like bills, annual budget reports, Personal interview

Primary data collection.

Time apportioned as per the time value spent/utilized on the activities related only to ReMiND program

Health system cost

Health system cost on program implementation.

Incremental cost of service delivery due to increased utilization of MNCH services.

unit cost for per service utilization)

Incremental effect of intervention on ASHA payment.

Financial documents on ASHA incentives from Chief Medical officer’s Office, Personal Interviews, Observations during meetings at block, district and state level.

Literature review for unit cost per service utilization

Primary data collection.

Apportioning of the salaries of the officials as per the time spent on attending meetings at block, district and state level.

Costs from Patient perspective

Out of pocket expenditure(OOPE) incurred by the households in seeking health care services for various maternal, newborn and child illnesses

OOPE were obtained from the Impact assessment study carried out n two intervention blocks and two control blocks.

Primary data collection

Annual Program cost

It is sum of startup cost and implementation cost

–

Derived indicator

Overall annual unit cost per pregnant women

Annual programmatic cost divided by average annual number of women registered under ReMiND

Management information system (MIS) data from CRS on number of registered women

Derived indicator

Unit health system cost per pregnant women

Annual health system cost divided by average annual number of women registered under ReMiND

MIS data from CRS

Derived indicator

At state level –Uttar Pradesh

Scale up cost

Number of ASHAs in entire state, training cost of ASHA and supervisors, mobile phone cost, hosting service charges, health system cost

NRHM website, Observations, Calculations from available data

Unit costs of pilot at two blocks were expanded to 821 blocks in Uttar Pradesh state.

Per capita scale up cost

Total scale up cost divided by Total population of state

Census 2011

Derived indicator

Per pregnant women scale up cost

Total scale up cost in Uttar Pradesh divided by average number of pregnant women in the state in an year

Crude Birth Rate

Derived indictors

  1. ASHA- Accredited Social Health Activist, CRS-Catholic Relief Services, MNCH- Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, OOP- Out of Pocket Expenditure, ReMiND- Reducing Maternal and Newborn Deaths