Milena Soriano Marcolino|João Antônio de Queiroz Oliveira|Marcelo D’Agostino|Antônio Luiz Pinho Ribeiro|Maria Beatriz Moreira Alkmim|David Novillo-Ortiz
The Impact of mHealth Interventions: Systematic Review of Systematic Reviews
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais|Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais|World Health Organization Regional Office for the Americas|Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais|Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais|World Health Organization Regional Office for the Americas
mobile phone usage rapidly increasing worldwide mhealth could efficiently deliver highquality health care evidence supporting current effectiveness still mixedwe performed systematic review systematic reviews assess impact effectiveness mobile health mhealth interventions different health conditions processes health care service deliverywe used common search strategy five major scientific databases restricting search publication date language parameters methodology content methodological quality evaluated using measurement tool assess systematic reviews amstar checklistthe searches resulted total 10689 articles 23 systematic reviews 371 studies 79665 patients included seventeen reviews included studies performed low middleincome countries studies used diverse mhealth interventions frequently text messaging short message service sms applied different purposes reminder alert education motivation prevention ten reviews rated low quality amstar score 04 seven rated moderate quality amstar score 58 six categorized high quality amstar score 911 beneficial impact mhealth observed chronic disease management showing improvement symptoms peak flow variability asthma patients reducing hospitalizations improving forced expiratory volume 1 second improving chronic pulmonary diseases symptoms improving heart failure symptoms reducing deaths hospitalization improving glycemic control diabetes patients improving blood pressure hypertensive patients reducing weight overweight obese patients studies also showed positive impact sms reminders improving attendance rates similar impact phone call reminders reduced cost improved adherence tuberculosis human immunodeficiency virus therapy scenarios evidence decrease viral loadalthough mhealth growing popularity evidence efficacy still limited general methodological quality studies included systematic reviews low fields impact evident results mixed longterm studies exist exceptions include moderate quality evidence improvement asthma patients attendance rates increased smoking abstinence rates studies performed highincome countries implying mhealth still early stage development lowincome countries