Effect of mHealth Interventions on Glycemic Control and HbA1c Improvement among Type II Diabetes Patients in Asian Population: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Abstract

Introduction: Due to the high prevalence of diabetes mellitus, it is pertinent to educate and inform diabetes patients about their self-management. It can be done effectively using innovative methods like mobile health (mHealth), which includes mobile applications, phone calls, and text messages. Thus, this meta-analysis was conducted to summarize the effectiveness of mHealth interventions for the management of diabetes compared with usual care in the Asian population.

Materials and methods: Searches were performed in electronic databases, namely PubMed, Scopus, Embase, and Cochrane Library, in August and September 2020. Search terms used were "Diabetes Mellitus," "mHealth," "glycemic control", "HbA1c levels," and "Blood glucose levels." The primary outcome was glycated hemoglobin and blood glucose levels. Trials were pooled, and heterogeneity was quantified using the I² statistic.

Results: The search yielded 3980 abstracts, of which 18 trials met the inclusion criteria. Lowering of Hba1c levels was reported in the majority of trials, which aided in Glycemic control. For post prandial blood glucose (PPBG) levels, a statistically significant reduction of value -20.13 (95%CI -35.16 to -5.10, P = 0.009, I² = 59%) was seen in the mean in the intervention group, whereas for HbA1c levels the mean reduction in the intervention group was -0.44 (95%CI, -0.79 to 0.10, P = 0.01, I² = 87%). Although these interventions proved beneficial for these outcomes, there was a difference in the amount of effects caused by different mHealth interventions.

Conclusion: This study acknowledged the effects of different mHealth interventions as per their accessibility and availability in recent years. There is a need to include more studies in future reviews to generate a larger body of evidence for the reported outcomes. The researchers should give the utmost priority to the transparency while reporting the interventions for effective interpretation of the retrieved data.