Mobile Phones for Real-time Nutrition Surveillance: Approaches, Challenges and Opportunities for Data Presentation and Dissemination

Abstract

Child undernutrition remains devastatingly high in many low- and middle-income countries (Black et al. 2013). Poor nutrition in early childhood (often combined with ill health) has been shown to increase the risk for early mortality, can have long-term and often irreversible effects on physical growth, cognitive and social development, and increases susceptibility to non-communicable diseases in adulthood (Black et al. 2008; Liu et al. 2012; Victora et al. 2008). Effective nutrition surveillance mechanisms are essential if governments and other agencies are to capture undernutrition in its early stages, track undernutrition trends and inform timely decision-making (Gillespie et al. 2013). The aim of this report is to review and discuss approaches, opportunities and challenges in the aggregation, presentation and dissemination of data collected in a mobile phone-based nutrition surveillance system.