BACKGROUND
Mobile health services educate patients with diabetes regarding their personal condition, helping them better manage the disease and mitigate complications from diabetes.
OBJECTIVE
Because mobile health services use mobile computing devices, such as smartphones, it remains unclear whether such services can meet the needs of older adult patients with diabetes with respect to health information and communication with medical groups. Thus, this study explored how effective and applicable mobile medical services are among older adult patients with diabetes.
METHODS
Adopting a systematic review approach, we searched for peer-reviewed journal articles published between 2010 and 2020. We obtained 523 potentially relevant studies but meta-analyzed the study data of nine of them after applying inclusion and exclusion criteria. Our patients were from three countries and had a mean age of 60 years.
RESULTS
The combined effects were statistically significant; they were 3-month post-intervention weighted mean difference (WMD) = −0.62 (95% CI: −1.06, −0.17) and 6-month post-intervention WMD = −0.42 (95% CI: −0.61, −0.23）.
CONCLUSIONS
Mobile health services are partially effective among older adult patients with diabetes. These services can improve blood sugar levels, depression symptoms, and health conditions. Obstacles remain, such as technical anxiety, but they can be eliminated by including technical guidance and remote supervision services.