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Use of mHealth Systems and Tools for Non-Communicable Diseases in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: a Systematic Review

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Abstract

With the rapid adoption of mobile devices, mobile health (mHealth) offers the potential to transform health care delivery, especially in the world’s poorest regions. We systematically reviewed the literature to determine the impact of mHealth interventions on health care quality for non-communicable diseases in low- and middle-income countries and to identify knowledge gaps in this rapidly evolving field. Overall, we found few high-quality studies. Most studies narrowly focused on text messaging systems for patient behavior change, and few studies examined the health systems strengthening aspects of mHealth. There were limited literature reporting clinical effectiveness, costs, and patient acceptability, and none reporting equity and safety issues. Despite the bold promise of mHealth to improve health care, much remains unknown about whether and how this will be fulfilled. Encouragingly, we identified some registered clinical trial protocols of large-scale, multidimensional mHealth interventions, suggesting that the current limited evidence base will expand in coming years.

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Abbreviations

NCD:

Non-communicable diseases

LMIC:

Low- and middle-income countries

CVD:

Cardiovascular disease

UN:

United Nations

WHO-PEN:

World Health Organization Package of Essential NCD interventions

PHC:

Primary health care

mHealth:

Mobile health

EMBASE:

Excerpta Medica database

CINAHL:

Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature

LILACS:

Latin American and Caribbean Health Science Literature Database

WHO:

World Health Organization

RCT:

Randomized controlled trial

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Acknowledgments

DPe is supported by an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council Fellowship (ID 1054754). DPr is supported by a scholarship from the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID).

Conflict of Interest

DPe has received research grant(s) number 1047508 and 1040147 from Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council to develop and test m-health interventions in Australia and India. No human studies were carried out by the authors for this article. There was no funding obtained in the development and writing of this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. George Institute for Global Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, Box M201, Missenden Rd, NSW, 2050, Australia

    David Peiris & Claire Johnson

  2. George Institute for Global Health - India, New Delhi, India

    Devarsetty Praveen & Kishor Mogulluru

  3. Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, Box M201, Missenden Rd, NSW, 2050, Australia

    Devarsetty Praveen

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  1. David Peiris
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Correspondence to David Peiris.

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Associate Editor Daniel P. Judge oversaw the review of this article

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Peiris, D., Praveen, D., Johnson, C. et al. Use of mHealth Systems and Tools for Non-Communicable Diseases in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: a Systematic Review. J. of Cardiovasc. Trans. Res. 7, 677–691 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12265-014-9581-5

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