Mobile-based health education interventions for improving tuberculosis knowledge in rural communities.

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major public health challenge in many low- and middle-income countries, especially in rural areas where access to formal health services is limited and awareness of the disease is low. Surveys in rural community in UP, India show that fewer than half of rural adults have adequate knowledge of TB and only about 11 % demonstrate positive attitudes toward the disease, underscoring the need for community-focused education. Digital health technologies, such as mobile phone applications, text messages and interactive videos, have been endorsed by the World Health Organization as cost-effective tools to bridge gaps in TB care and reach underserved populations. A quasi-experimental pre-post study was therefore conducted in rural communities served by primary health centres to evaluate whether a structured, mobile-based education program could improve TB knowledge. Adult participants with access to smartphones received short videos, pictorial messages, simple text explanations and regular reminders covering five key domains of TB: causes and transmission, symptoms and early warning signs, diagnostic procedures, treatment requirements and prevention measures. Knowledge was measured before and after the intervention using a validated questionnaire. Results showed substantial gains across all domains; for example, mean knowledge scores about treatment duration and adherence increased by 40 percentage points and overall knowledge improved by nearly 38 points, with all changes statistically significant (p < 0.001). These findings suggest that mobile-based education can meaningfully raise TB literacy in rural communities and provide a scalable complement to conventional health promotion.