Digital Health Technologies for Chronic Disease Prevention: A Narrative Review

Digital health technologies have emerged as transformative tools for chronic disease prevention, offering unprecedented opportunities to address the global burden of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obesity. This narrative review synthesizes evidence from peer-reviewed literature published between 2020 and 2025 to evaluate the effectiveness, implementation challenges, and future directions of mobile health applications, wearable devices, telemedicine, and artificial intelligence (AI)-based tools in chronic disease prevention. Mobile health interventions demonstrate consistent glycemic improvements, with meta-analyses reporting mean HbA1c reductions of − 0.49% (95% CI: −0.65% to − 0.32%) compared to standard care. Wearable devices show promise for cardiovascular risk reduction, with emerging evidence suggesting decreased major adverse cardiovascular events. AI algorithms achieve high diagnostic accuracy for conditions like diabetic retinopathy, with area under the curve values exceeding 0.99. Telemedicine interventions improve quality of life metrics and glycemic control across diverse populations. However, implementation faces persistent barriers, including limited digital literacy, privacy concerns, inadequate healthcare system integration, and significant health equity challenges. The digital divide disproportionately affects older adults, racial minorities, low-income populations, and rural communities. Successful implementation requires user-centered design, targeted training, healthcare provider endorsement, and multilevel interventions addressing structural determinants of digital health access. Future research should prioritize standardized outcome measures, long-term effectiveness studies, and strategies to ensure equitable access to these promising technologies.