Effectiveness of Mobile Medical Apps in Ensuring Medication Safety Among Patients With Chronic Diseases: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Abstract

Background Along with the rapid growth of the global aging society, the mobile and health digital market has expanded greatly. Countless mobile medical apps (mmApps) have sprung up in the internet market, aiming to help patients with chronic diseases achieve medication safety. Objective Based on the medication safety action plans proposed by the World Health Organization, we aimed to explore the effectiveness of mmApps in ensuring the medication safety of patients with chronic diseases, including whether mmApps can improve the willingness to report adverse drug events (ADEs), improve patients' medication adherence, and reduce medication errors. We hoped to verify our hypothesis through a systematic review and meta-analysis. Methods The meta-analysis was performed in strict accordance with the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines and included literature searched from 7 databases—PubMed, Web Of Science, Embase, CINAHL, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang, and SinoMed. The publication time was limited to the time of database establishment to April 30, 2022. Studies were screened based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. The data extracted included authors, years of publication, countries or regions, participants’ characteristics, intervention groups, and control groups, among others. Our quality assessment followed the guidelines of the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions, Version 6.3. RevMan 5.2 software (Cochrane Collaboration) was used to analyze the statistical data, and a sensitivity analysis was performed to assess data stability. The degree of stability was calculated by using a different statistical method and excluding large-sample studies from the analysis. Results We included 8 studies from 5 countries (China, the United States, France, Canada, and Spain) that were published from January 1, 2014, to December 31, 2021. The total number of participants was 1355, and we analyzed the characteristics of included studies, each app’s features, the risk of bias, and quality. The results showed that mmApps could increase ADE reporting willingness (relative risk [RR] 2.59, 95% CI 1.26-5.30; P=.009) and significantly improve medication adherence (RR 1.17, 95% CI 1.04-1.31; P=.007), but they had little effect on reducing medication errors (RR 1.54, 95% CI 0.33-7.29; P=.58). Conclusions We analyzed the following three merits of mmApps, with regard to facilitating the willingness to report ADEs: mmApps facilitate more communication between patients and physicians, patients attach more importance to ADE reporting, and the processing of results is transparent. The use of mmApps improved medication adherence among patients with chronic diseases by conveying medical solutions, providing educational support, tracking medications, and allowing for remote consultations. Finally, we found 3 potential reasons for why our medication error results differed from those of other studies. Trial Registration PROSPERO International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews CRD42022322072; https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=322072

Digital Technology Applications in the Management of Adverse Drug Reactions: Bibliometric Analysis

“…New modern electronic methods, for example, online applications or mobile applications, complement, simplify, and expand the ability to exchange and obtain important available information on drug safety, as well as improve adherence to treatment and reduce the side effects of polypharmacy [ 54 , 55 , 56 ].…”

Effectiveness of a Multifaceted Mobile Health Intervention (Multi-Aid-Package) in Medication Adherence and Treatment Outcomes Among Patients With Hypertension in a Low- to Middle-Income Country: Randomized Controlled Trial

“…Similarly, another trial utilizing mailing and automated calls [65], and other used video intervention in stroke patients [66] remained unable to reveal any substantial change. mHealth was also paramount in the treatment adherence of other chronic illnesses, such as tuberculosis, CVD, Diabetes and chronic liver diseases (CLDs) [67][68][69][70].…”

Co-designing a consumer-focused digital reporting health platform to improve adverse medicine event reporting: Protocol for a multi-method research project (the ReMedi project) (Preprint)

“…Consumers will be given a summary report of their data and access to the interactive data visualisation tool (Figure 2). Based on interventions to improve AME reporting 30 which report a relative risk of 2.04 (57% in intervention group versus 28% in controls), α of 0.05 and power of 80%, a total of 80 consumers experiencing and reporting AME is needed. Assuming that 20% of consumers starting medicines experience an AME and half of the consumers will report their AMEs, we aim to recruit 800 people for Phase 3.…”