Background: Antenatal Care (ANC), Health Facility Delivery (HFD), and Postnatal Care (PNC) are the leading indicators of improving maternal and child healthcare globally. This study investigated the effectiveness of a prototyped Global Position System (GPS) beaded bracelet intervention in enhancing maternal healthcare services uptake among pastoralist communities.

Methods: In this Randomized Control Trial (RCT), one hundred and seven pregnant women in their first trimester were randomly allocated to the intervention group (n = 52) and control group (n = 55). A GPS-beaded bracelet was given to the intervention group for the study duration of 16 months (6 months before delivery and 10 months after delivery). Meanwhile, the non-intervention group received routine ante- and postnatal care. The Pearson X² test and multivariate logistic regression analysis were conducted using IBM SPSS version 27.0, following the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) guidelines. Model fit was assessed using, the Omnibus test of model Co-efficient, classification table, Nagelkerke R Square, and the Hosmer-Lemeshow test. The significance level was set at p < 0.05. RCT was registered (ISRCTN15438206), and the GPS beaded bracelet was patented by Kenya Industrial Property Institutes (KIPI) NO: KE/UM/19/1211.

Results: Women in the intervention group have nine-fold higher likelihood of having more than four ANC visits (AOR 9.13, 95 % CI 1.75-47.54), three-fold higher likelihood of having postnatal care (AOR 2.71, 95 % CI 0.74-9.96), and a fourfold higher of giving live birth (AOR 3.56, 95 % CI 0.47-27.07) compared to women in the control group. No significant differences were noted between groups when it comes to place of delivery, indicating that while GPS may facilitate access to health facilities, it did not markedly change delivery outcomes based on location, but there is likelihood of delivering in a health facility (OR 2.0, 95 % CI 0.39-8.21). Other variables like age group, literacy level, and distance from health facility didn't exhibit a statistically significant association. All three methods of model fit assessment indicated good model fit.

Conclusion: The study result showed the effectiveness of GPS-beaded bracelets by significantly improving ANC, HFD, and PNC attendance and reducing infant mortality. Future studies should focus on refining these technologies to explore the long-term impacts and scalability of such interventions across diverse pastoralist populations to improve maternal and child healthcare.

Keywords: Antenatal; Global position system; Health facility delivery; Pastoralist communities; Postnatal; Pregnant women.

Copyright © 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

背景： 产前护理（ANC）、医疗机构分娩（HFD）和产后护理（PNC）是全球改善孕产妇和儿童医疗服务的主要指标。本研究调查了一种原型全球定位系统（GPS）珠子手链干预措施在提高游牧社区孕产妇医疗服务利用率方面的有效性。

方法： 在这项随机对照试验中，107名怀孕初期的妇女被随机分配到干预组（n = 52）和对照组（n = 55）。在为期16个月的研究期间（孕中期前6个月和产后10个月），给干预组成员发放GPS珠子手链。与此同时，非干预组接受常规产前和产后护理。使用IBM SPSS版本27.0根据临床试验统一标准报告规范(CONSORT)指南进行Pearson X²检验及多变量逻辑回归分析。模型拟合通过总体系数的 Omnibus 检验、分类表、Nagelkerke R Square 和 Hosmer-Lemeshow 检验来评估。显著性水平设定为p

结果： 干预组妇女有九倍的可能性进行四次以上的产前检查（AOR 9.13，95% CI 1.75-47.54），三倍的可能性接受产后护理（AOR 2.71，95% CI 0.74-9.96），并且活产率提高了四倍（AOR 3.56，95% CI 0.47-27.07），与对照组相比。在分娩地点方面，两组之间没有显著差异，这表明虽然GPS可能有助于获得医疗机构的访问权，但它并未明显改变基于位置的分娩结果，但有更高的可能性在医疗机构内分娩（OR 2.0，95% CI 0.39-8.21）。其他变量如年龄、识字程度和距离医疗机构的距离没有表现出统计学上的显著关联。三种模型拟合评估方法均显示良好的模型拟合。

结论： 研究结果显示，GPS珠子手链在显著提高产前护理（ANC）、医疗机构分娩（HFD）和产后护理（PNC）的参与度以及减少婴儿死亡率方面具有有效性。未来的研究应侧重于完善这些技术，探索此类干预措施在不同游牧人口中长期影响及可扩展性的效果，以改善孕产妇和儿童医疗保健。

关键词： 产前；全球定位系统；医疗机构分娩；游牧社区；产后；孕妇。