The effectiveness of mobile application for monitoring diabetes mellitus and hypertension in the adult and elderly population: Systematic review and meta-analysis
Open accessAbstract
Context: Arterial Hypertension (AH) and Diabetes Mellitus (DM) are diseases that are getting worse all over the world. Linked to this advance, is the growing digital health market with numerous mobile health applications, which aim to help patients and professionals in the proper management of chronic diseases. The aim of this study was to analyze, through a systematic review and meta-analysis, the effectiveness of using mobile health applications in monitoring AH and/or DM in the adult and elderly population. Methods: The systematic review and meta-analysis was carried out in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Metanalyses guidelines and involved searching five databases – Medline/PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, Virtual Library in Health and Cochrane Library. The review included randomized and cohort clinical trials testing the effects of the intervention on changing biochemical parameters and clinical efficacy in people treated for AH and/or DM. The quality of the selected studies was assessed based on the evaluation criteria of the Joanna Briggs Institute tool. The random effects meta-analysis method was used to explain effect distribution between studies, by Stata® software (version 11.0) and publication bias was examined by visual inspection of graphs and Egger test. Results: We included 26 studies in the systematic review and 17 in the meta-analysis. These studies were published between 2014 to 2022 in 14 countries. Were reported improvement in knowledge and self-management of AH and DM, social motivation with treatment and behavioral change, reduction in glycated hemoglobin values, fasting glucose and blood pressure, improvement in adherence to drug treatment, among others. The result of the meta-analysis showed that there is evidence that the use of mobile applications can help reduce glycated hemoglobin by 0.39% compared to the usual care group. Conclusions: Monitoring and self-monitoring of behaviors and health care related to AH and DM in adults and the elderly through mobile applications, has clinically significant effectiveness in reducing glycated hemoglobin levels. Future studies should provide more evidence and recommendations for best practices and development of digital health interventions. Trial registration: PROSPERO. International Prospective Registry of Systematic Reviews. CRD42022361928.
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A meta-analysis by de Souza Ferreira et al., including 17 trials, showed a 0.39% (95% CI 0.24 to 0.54) reduction in HbA1c with mobile apps for monitoring diabetes and hypertension compared to traditional care.
“Among reviews concerned with diabetes and mHealth system, a meta-analysis study by de Souza Ferreira and colleagues, including 17 trials on diabetes highlighted the effectiveness of mobile apps for monitoring diabetes and hypertension, showing a 0.39% (95% CI 0.24 to 0.54) reduction in HbA1c compared to traditional care (32).”
From Impact of digital health on Type 2 diabetes management: a randomised controlled trial of the ‘TreC Diabete’ platform (TELEMECHRON Study) (2025) · cites this paper as [32]
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- Authors
- de Souza Ferreira, E., de Aguiar Franco, F., dos Santos Lara, M. M., Levcovitz, A. A., Dias, M. A., Moreira, T. R., de Oliveira, A. H. M., & Cotta, R. M. M.
- Affiliations
- Universidade Federal de Viçosa (BR)
- Universidade Federal do Tocantins (BR)
- Venue
- BMC Health Services Research
- Published
- 2023-08-12
- Volume
- 23
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 855-855
- ISSN
- 1472-6963 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC10423411
- OpenAlex
- W4385774197
- Cited by
- 42
- References
- 32
- Citations by year
- 2026: 16 · 2025: 19 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 1
- FWCI
- 2.12
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- BMC Health Services Research (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (306358/2020)
- Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais , Brasil (APQ-02708-21)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Mobile Health and mHealth Applications
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Health Information Management › Health, Technology, Consumer Behavior
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Mobile Learning in Education
- Keywords
- mobile health apps, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, chronic disease self-management, HbA1c, blood pressure control, fasting blood glucose, medication adherence, elderly patients, digital health interventions, behavior change
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aged, Chronic Disease, Diabetes Mellitus, Glycated Hemoglobin, Humans, Hypertension, Mobile Applications
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