Effectiveness of eHealth and mHealth Interventions Supporting Children and Young People Living With Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

• Published in: Journal of medical Internet research 2022-02, Vol.24 (2), p.e30457-e30457
• Main Authors: Butler, Sonia, Sculley, Dean, Santos, Derek, Fellas, Antoni, Gironès, Xavier, Singh-Grewal, Davinder, Coda, Andrea
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Analysis; Arthritis; Arthritis, Juvenile - therapy; Child; Child, Preschool; Children; Chronic illnesses; Clinical outcomes; Coping; Diaries; Disease management; Diseases; Electronic diaries; Exercise; Health aspects; Health education; Health literacy; Health promotion; Health status; Humans; Idiopathic; Infant; Intensive care; Interdisciplinary aspects; Internet; Intervention; Measurement; Meta-analysis; Multimedia; Pain; Parents & parenting; Patient compliance; Pediatrics; Quality of life; Quality of Life - psychology; Remission (Medicine); Review; Rheumatology; Self-efficacy; Self-Management; Systematic review; Telemedicine; Telemedicine - methods; Usability; Workforce; Youth
• ISSN: 1438-8871; 1439-4456; 1438-8871
• DOI: 10.2196/30457

Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) management aims to promote remission through timely, individualized, well-coordinated interdisciplinary care using a range of pharmacological, physical, psychological, and educational interventions. However, achieving this goal is workforce-intensive. Harnessing the burgeoning eHealth and mobile health (mHealth) interventions could be a resource-efficient way of supplementing JIA management. This systematic review aims to identify the eHealth and mHealth interventions that have been proven to be effective in supporting health outcomes for children and young people (aged 1-18 years) living with JIA. We systematically searched 15 databases (2018-2021). Studies were eligible if they considered children and young people (aged 1-18 years) diagnosed with JIA, an eHealth or mHealth intervention, any comparator, and health outcomes related to the used interventions. Independently, 2 reviewers screened the studies for inclusion and appraised the study quality using the Downs and Black (modified) checklist. Study outcomes were summarized using a narrative, descriptive method and, where possible, combined for a meta-analysis using a random-effects model. Of the 301 studies identified in the search strategy, 15 (5%) fair-to-good-quality studies met the inclusion criteria, which identified 10 interventions for JIA (age 4-18.6 years). Of these 10 interventions, 5 (50%) supported symptom monitoring by capturing real-time data using health applications, electronic diaries, or web-based portals to monitor pain or health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Within individual studies, a preference was demonstrated for real-time pain monitoring over recall pain assessments because of a peak-end effect, improved time efficiency (P=.002), and meeting children's and young people's HRQoL needs (P