My Screen, My Choice – A co-designed mHealth tool to raise awareness of self-collection cervical screening and increase cervical screening participation in an Aboriginal community-controlled health settings in Victoria, Australia.

Introduction: Preventative health programs delivered through digital devices such as mobile phones (mHealth) are an innovative component of the healthcare tool kit, which are increasingly implemented at scale particularly in primary care settings. We explored the implementation and effectiveness of a codesigned mHealth tool in an Aboriginal community-controlled health service to improve the experience of and participation in cervical screening through self-collection (SC) for and with Aboriginal women.

Objective: To codesign and implement an mHealth strategy with Aboriginal women to improve awareness and participation in cervical screening

Descriptions: Using Indigenous research principles, a series of codesign activities highlighted the potential of utilising an mHealth tool (GoShare Plus) as a health self-collection promotion strategy. Focus group discussions with Aboriginal women (staff and community members) and a community survey informed the content and resources of the mHealth tool. Cervical screening participation was measured before and after implementation through analysis of pathology data.

Results: FGDs involved 11 Aboriginal and 3 non-Aboriginal staff at the Cooperative. 30 Aboriginal women from the community participated in the survey. A SMS-based tool was found to be highly acceptable to Aboriginal women including clicking a hyperlink in an SMS to additional resources. Women wanted the tool to reflect their community with suggestions of in-language greetings and testimonial videos of respected people or women in the community who used self-collection. Key messages developed with women included that SC is just as accurate as a clinician-collected specimen, eligibility criteria, that it’s quick and easy and to contact their trusted health professional at the service. In designing the tool, the need to explicitly consider its appropriateness and accessibility for women with differing needs was emphasized.

Conclusions: Implementation of the mHealth tool will be completed by early 2024 with overall findings to be presented.