Mobile phone-based voice call interventions significantly reduced the length of hospital stays for heart failure patients, but had no significant effects on mortality, readmission, or quality of life.
Meta-Analysis
Do mobile phone-based interventions improve health outcomes in patients with chronic heart failure?
Mobile phone-based voice call interventions may reduce the length of hospital stays for heart failure patients, though they do not appear to impact mortality, readmissions, or quality of life.
Mobile phone-based interventions are increasingly used to prevent adverse health outcomes in heart failure patients. However, the effects of mobile phone-based interventions on the health outcomes of heart failure patients remain unclear. Our review aims to synthesize the randomized controlled trials (RCT) of mobile phone-based interventions for heart failure patients and identify the intervention features that are most effective. Electronic searches of RCTs published from January 2000 to July 2019 were conducted. Primary outcomes included all-cause mortality, readmission, emergency department visits, length of hospital stays, and quality of life. Secondary outcomes were self-care behaviors, including medication adherence and other clinical outcomes. A total of eight studies with varying methodological quality met the inclusion criteria and were analyzed. Voice call intervention was more frequently used compared with telemonitoring and short message services. Our meta-analysis showed that voice call interventions had significant effects on the length of hospital stays. However, no significant effects on all-cause mortality, readmission, emergency department visits, or quality of life were found. Compared to other mobile phone-based interventions, voice calls were more effective in reducing the length of hospital stay. Future studies are needed to identify which features of mobile phone-based intervention most effectively improve health outcomes.
Son et al. (Sat,) conducted a meta-analysis in Chronic Heart Failure. Mobile phone-based interventions (voice calls) vs. Other mobile phone-based interventions was evaluated on All-cause mortality, readmission, emergency department visits, length of hospital stays, and quality of life. Mobile phone-based voice call interventions significantly reduced the length of hospital stays for heart failure patients, but had no significant effects on mortality, readmission, or quality of life.