A systematic review of the effect of mobile health on cardiac rehabilitation among coronary heart disease patients

Objective Mobile health (mHealth) provides an innovative and effective approach to promote prevention and management of coronary heart disease. However, the magnitude of its effects is unclear. The aim of this systematic review was to examine the impact of mHealth-based cardiac rehabilitation outcomes among coronary heart disease patients. Methods Medline, CINAHL, Embase, PubMed, Google Scholar, NICE, and Cochrane library were searched for randomized controlled trials published between January 2002 and March 2017 which compared mHealth with conventional cardiac rehabilitation programs among coronary heart disease patients. Results Eight articles were included in this review. The impact of mHealth interventions on physical activity, medicine adherence, smoking cessation, level of anxiety, and quality of life was inconsistent among the articles. Conclusions Further research is needed to conclusively determine the impact of mHealth interventions on cardiac rehabilitation outcomes. The limitations of the included studies (e.g., inadequate sample size, failure to address the core components of cardiac rehabilitation programs, and lack of theory-based design) should be taken into account when designing future studies.