Implementation and impact of mobile health (mHealth) in the management of diabetes mellitus in Africa: a systematic review protocol

• Published in: BMJ open 2021-12, Vol.11 (12), p.e047556-e047556
• Main Authors: Dike, Franklin Okechukwu, Mutabazi, Jean Claude, Ubani, Blessing Chinenye, Isa, Ahmed Sherif, Ezeude, Chidiebele, Musa, Ezekiel, Iheonye, Henry, Ainavi, Isah Idris
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Africa - epidemiology; Cell Phone; Cellular telephones; Clinical trials; Diabetes; Diabetes Mellitus - epidemiology; Diabetes Mellitus - therapy; general diabetes; Global positioning systems; GPS; Health Informatics; health policy; Humans; Infectious diseases; Intervention; Low income groups; preventive medicine; Public health; quality in health care; Research Design; Smartphones; Systematic review; Systematic Reviews as Topic; Telemedicine; Text messaging
• ISSN: 2044-6055; 2044-6055
• DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-047556

IntroductionThe WHO has proposed the concept of mobile health (mHealth) to support healthcare systems delivery worldwide. mHealth basically involves the use of Information and Communication Technology for healthcare provision or delivery services. Africa has seen a remarkable increase in mobile phone availability and usage in the last decade. The incidence and prevalence of diabetes mellitus (DM) in Africa have also been on the increase in the last decade, in sharp contrast to an ailing healthcare system. We aim to review the extent of implementation of mHealth in the management of DM in Africa, and estimate its impact in helping patients achieve desired glycaemic target, sustain control and prevent complications in the past decade.Methods and analysisStudies assessing the utilisation of mhealth in the management of patients with DM in Africa will be considered based on the PICO method: Population, Intervention, Comparator, and Outcomes. Medline, PubMed, SCOPUS and the Pan African Clinical Trials Registry, among others will be searched. Two authors independent of each other shall screen titles and abstracts retrieved using the search strategy, retrieve the full text articles and assess them for eligibility and extract data. A third reviewing author will be brought in to resolve any disagreement between the two authors by discussion. The ‘Cochrane Collaboration Risk of Bias Tool’ will be used to assess the quality of included studies. A narrative synthesis of extracted data and, where the characteristics of the eligible studies permit, a meta-analysis (which will be reported according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines) will be done.Ethics and disseminationNo ethical approval will be required since only published data will be used. Dissemination of results will be through peer reviewed publication and conference presentation.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42021218674.