Effect of Remote Health Interventions on Blood Pressure Control and Quality of Life for Hypertension Self-management: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective: To evaluate the effect of remote health interventions on self-management of hypertension. Methods: We systematically searched the literature for studies published in English in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. The database was used to search for relevant studies with full text and evaluate the remote health interventions for hypertension self-management versus usual care for hypertension. RevMan 5.4 was used for data analysis. Results: A total of 19 studies eventually met our inclusion criteria. The results showed that the remote health interventions group could significantly reduce the levels of SBP (MD=5.67, 95% CI=4.12-7.22, p<.001) and DBP (MD=1.88, 95% CI=1.16- 2.60, p<.001), compared with usual care group, it also significantly improving the patient's quality of life (SMD=0.84, 95% CI=0.32- 1.37, p=.002), reduce waist circumference (MD=2.39, 95% CI=0.35-4.44, p=.020) and BMI (MD=0.49, 95% CI=0.06-0.91, p=.020), and significantly increasing the physical activity of patients (SMD=0.19, 95% CI=0.06- 0.31, p=.004). No obvious publication bias was found in this meta-analysis. Conclusion: This study showed that remote health interventions for self-management can significantly improve patients’ quality of life with hypertension and better BP control than usual care. Further studies could be assess the long-term clinical effectiveness and economic evaluation of remote health interventions for self-management.