A meta-analysis of effectiveness of mobile health interventions on health-related outcomes in patients with heart failure

Aims To systematically evaluate the effectiveness of mobile health (mHealth) interventions on medication adherence in patients with heart failure. Methods The literature search was conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library databases, Embase, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang Database and China Scientific Journal Database (VIP). The retrieval period was from the establishment of the database to May 2023. The included studies were trials to explore the effectiveness of mHealth interventions on medication adherence in patients with heart failure. Cochrane collaboration's tool was used for assessing risk of bias in randomized controlled trials. Stata 17.0 software was used to conduct data analysis. Continuous data were expressed as standard mean differences, and dichotomous data were expressed as relative risks with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results A total of 13 studies and 2534 participants were included. One study was rated as Grade A, and the other 12 studies were Grade B. The results of meta-analysis indicate that mHealth interventions are effective in improving medication adherence [relative risk (RR) = 1.26, 95% CI 1.10–1.44, P < 0.05 and standard mean difference = 0.80, 95% CI 0.44–1.15, P < 0.05], and reducing readmission rates (RR = 0.63, 95% CI 0.53–0.76, P < 0.05) and mortality (RR = 0.63, 95% CI 0.43–0.94, P < 0.05) of patients with heart failure. Conclusion mHealth interventions are beneficial to improve medication adherence in patients with heart failure, and could effectively reduce the readmission rates and mortality of patients in the studies. There is a need to continuously improve the professional abilities of intervention personnel, carry out teamwork, and extend intervention and follow-up time. Convenient, fast and low-cost mobile medical devices should be adopted to reduce the cost of medical treatment. Scientific and reasonable intervention content will be formulated according to evidence-based guidelines and theoretical basis to enhance patients’ ability at self-management and understanding of heart failure knowledge.