Effectiveness of Smartphone-Based Self-Management Interventions on Self-care and Health Relevant Outcomes in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis (Preprint)

Abstract

Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) is a major health problem worldwide. Proper self-management can improve health outcomes and reduces risk of diabetic complications. Recently, smartphone-based technology has been used for self-management programs but their effectiveness in improving self-efficacy, self-care activities, health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and clinical outcomes for patients with T2DM is not well understood.

To review the evidence and determine the effectiveness of smartphone-based self-management interventions on self-efficacy, self-care activities, HRQoL, glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c), body mass index (BMI), blood pressure (BP) levels of adults with T2DM.

A systematic search of five databases (PubMed, Embase, Cochrane, CINAHL and Scopus) was conducted. Study published in English, from January 2007 to January 2018, were considered. Only randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of smartphone-based self-management interventions for patients with T2DM that reported any of the study outcomes were included. Two reviewers independently screened the studies, extracted data and assessed the quality of the studies. Meta-analyses were conducted for the different study outcomes.

A total of 26 articles, consisting of 22 studies with 2645 participants were included in the review. A meta-analysis conducted on self-efficacy revealed a large improvement of 0.98 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.42 to 1.55; P < 0.001) with smartphone-based self-management interventions. The effect size on self-care activities was also large (d = 0.90; 95% CI 0.24 to 1.57; P < 0.001). Significant heterogeneity was present among studies pooled for both outcomes and subgroup analyses were conducted for self-efficacy. Smartphone-based self-management interventions also gave a small improvement on HRQoL (d = 0.26; 95% CI 0.06 to 0.47; P = .01) and a significant reduction in HbA1c (pooled MD = -0.55; 95% CI -0.60 to -0.40; P < 0.001). The effects on BMI and BP were not statistically significant.

Smartphone-based self-management interventions appear to have beneficial effects on self-efficacy, self-care activities and health-relevant outcomes for patients with T2DM. However, more research with good study designs is needed to evaluate the effectiveness of smartphone-based self-care interventions for T2DM.

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