Free Digital Health Education for Diseases of Public Health Importance (HIV, Tuberculosis and Taenia Solium Cysticercosis/Taeniosis) in Iringa, Tanzania

Introduction This protocol is registered in Helseforsk, University of Oslo, and the project has been assessed by Norwegian Centre for Research Data (NSD), ref. number 59643. Ethical approval from the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR), Tanzania, has been granted with the reference number NIMR/HQ/R.8a/Vol IX/2947.

The PhD-project consist of three work packages (WPs): WP1: A systematic review and meta-analysis, WP2: A cluster non-randomised controlled trial and WP3: Semi-structured interviews with clients in the intervention group. Only WP2 and WP3 are elaborated upon in this protocol.

The planned research project will be included as a health-research component in the Norwegian Government- and Norwegian Research Council- funded innovation project "Non-discriminating access for Digital Inclusion" (DigI). The project runs from January 2017 to September 2020. Altogether 11 partners from eight countries are collaborating on the project. Professor Josef Noll from the Dept. of Technology Systems (ITS), University of Oslo (UiO), is the project owner, and the doctoral research fellow's co- supervisor. Responsible for the health-research component and main supervisor of the doctoral research fellow, is Professor Dr. Andrea Winkler at the Institute of Health and Society, UiO. Head in TZ, is Dr. Bernard Ngowi (HIV/AIDS and TB specialist) from NIMR and Associate professor Helena Ngowi (TSCT specialist) from Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA). Associate professor Maurice Isabwe from Dept. of Information and Communication Technology at University of Agder is head of developing the digital health messages. This study is thus multicentre with several institutions responsible for research.

In Tanzania, DigI will facilitate a digital health education platform, where digital health messages related to HIV / AIDS, Tuberculosis (TB) and Taenia solium cysticercosis/taeniosis (TSCT) will be transferred to the community; hereby called clients, defined by the World Health Organization (2017) as "members of the public that are potential or current users of health services, including promotion activities" .

The digital health messages will be accessible at a Wi-Fi spot in the local village close to the local health post. The digital health messages will also be shown face-to-face to each of the participants in the intervention group, by enumerators in the research team from SUA and the doctoral research fellow. The intervention will be available for all clients in the intervention villages, not only for the participants in the study described in this protocol.