Browsing by Author "Douglas,Tania"

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    An evaluation of the impact of mHealth interventions on patients’ attendance to treatment for three common ophthalmic diseases that cause blindness: a systematic review
    (2018) Madi, Meftah Mohamed Mohamed; Abrahams, Jill; Douglas,Tania
    Background: Ophthalmic diseases are those that affect the eye, including cataracts, glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. These diseases can lead to blindness and vision loss, especially at advanced stages. Cataracts, glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy are the most common ophthalmic diseases that cause blindness. Patients encounter challenges with attendance to appointments for treatment because they may forget the date, time and/or place of the surgery. mHealth interventions are a means of addressing the challenge of patients missing appointments. This study reviews the use of mHealth reminders to improve patients’ attendance to ophthalmic disease treatment. Methods: A systematic review was conducted to assess the literature from various databases including; PubMed, Scopus, (Africa-Wide Information, CINAHL, Computers & Applied Sciences Complete, Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition by Ebscohost) and Web of Science. We searched different sources for grey literature including; Google.com, Open Grey, New York Academy of Medicine, WHO, Cochran library, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. The interventions were limited to SMS and telephone calls. Studies were considered eligible if they were randomized control trials (RCT), prospective or retrospective cohort studies, cross-sectional studies, or if they reported on outcomes primarily related to patient attendance to ophthalmic disease appointments. Results: Ten studies that met the eligibility criteria were included in the systematic review. The study setting included developed countries and low-and-middle-income countries (LMIC). Sixty percent of these studies were conducted in LMIC, while forty percent were conducted in developed countries. Eighty percent of the study participants were older than 55 years and the mean age of participants was 61.5 years. Both male and female participants were included, with approximately fifty nine percent of them being female. Discussion: The assessment of the literature highlighted that mHealth reminders resulted in significant improvement in patient attendance to treatment for the three common ophthalmic diseases. The mHealth platform was particularly relevant in LMIC, and SMS was the most successful intervention. Women were the major users of mHealth tools to gain access to services. Conclusion: This systematic review aimed to inform healthcare workers and decision makers in the health system on the use of mobile phone messaging as reminders to improve patient attendance to the three common ophthalmic diseases treatments that cause blindness. The evidence obtained from the systematic review will bring new opportunities for further research regarding the use of mHealth interventions as reminders for treatment adherence in general and ophthalmic diseases such as cataracts, glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy.
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    The impact of mHealth on adolescent global health outcomes: A scoping review of mHealth initiatives
    (2018) Patientia, Ramonde Fiona; Fortuin, Jill; Douglas,Tania
    Negative health behaviour during the period of adolescence contributes to the global burden of mortality, chronic disease, and preventable disability from physical injury. It is therefore essential to encourage positive health behaviour such as on-time vaccination, safer sex practices, and early recognition of infectious conditions and mental illness, before complications arise from unprotected sexual debut or undetected illness. Our project aims to determine the favourable aspects of global mHealth interventions as applied to adolescent health outcomes for knowledge transfer to adolescent infectious disease programmes in low and middle-income countries (LMIC’s). mHealth refers to the integration of mobile or wireless technology for health delivery and promotion and may appeal to adolescents as it allows for interactive, personalized, two-way communication on various digital platforms. However, it remains unclear what specific interventions work best to target vulnerable adolescents in LMIC’s, as most of the evidence for mHealth stems from studies in high-income countries, conducted on groups other than adolescents such as caregivers, health workers and adult patients. This report is a scoping review examining the global evidence of mHealth efficacy for common adolescent conditions, in order to gain insight into the types of interventions that best target adolescents for biological and behavioural health outcomes. These insights will facilitate knowledge transfer for the implementation of adolescent mHealth infectious disease management, and identification of research gaps. We included published and unpublished studies between 31 January 1990 and 30 November 2017, with no language limitation. Primary studies included adolescents (defined as 10-19 years of age) of any gender, location, or ethnicity, with access to a mobile phone or wireless device used for a healthrelated outcome. Studies reported on health outcomes of HIV, TB, vaccine-preventable disease, depression, suicide, road traffic accidents and substances other than tobacco use. Purely qualitative study designs and voice-only calls were excluded. Despite the potential appeal of mHealth among adolescents, there is unclear overall evidence for efficacy in this population. We had hoped that the adolescent period itself would allow generalisability of interventions. However, the variable reporting quality between studies, often without rich contextual descriptions, necessitate caution with interpretation of findings. This incomplete reporting also impacted on knowledge transfer at multiple levels, despite the use of study-specific guidelines. Our recommendations for future researchers would be to undertake adequately-powered studies among clearly defined age groups, and examine biological health outcomes for longer periods of follow-up. We also encourage researchers to use mHealth-specific guidelines such as the CONSORT-EHEALTH and mERA checklists to enable effective knowledge transfer and scaling of interventions.