Social media health interventions to improve diabetes mellitus patient outcome: a systematic review

Abstract

Abstract Objectives The use of modern technology and social media has revolutionized the way health information is distributed to diabetes mellitus patients. Social media can be used as a medium of providing health interventions to improve patient health outcomes. Social media is able to provide a more intensive communication facility between healthcare professionals and patients. We aim to systematically review and describe the effect of social media interventions on health outcomes of patients with diabetes mellitus. Methods A systematic review was carried out from three electronic databases (Pubmed, Scopus, and Medline). Eligible publications are studies that describe the application of social media interventions on the health outcomes of patients with diabetes mellitus. Results Fourteen studies were selected for this systematic review, 10 studies with a randomized controlled trial design, and 4 studies with a nonrandomized controlled trial design. Six studies only used interventions using social media, A blend of face-to-face social media intervention was used in 6 studies, 2 studies used a combination of telephone and social media intervention. One study had treatment behavior outcomes with improvement in treatment behavior, 6 studies had clinical outcomes (an improvement in HbA1c values in the four studies), 6 studies had treatment behavior outcomes and clinical outcomes (1 study had improved treatment behavior and clinical outcomes, 3 studies had improved treatment behavior outcome only), and 1 study had medication adherence outcome (no improvement in medication adherence). Conclusions These findings indicate that the intervention using social media can improve the health outcomes of diabetes mellitus patients.