The Effectiveness of Telemedicine in Improving Patient Adherence to Anti-hypertensive Medications: A Meta-analysis

Introduction: Hypertension is one of the most common illnesses that occur to people and it has to be addressed immediately to avoid severity. With this, telemedicine is introduced in healthcare industry. Objectives: This study aims to compare the effectiveness of telemedicine in addition to standard of care, and standard of care alone in improving adherence to anti-hypertensive medications. Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis approach was conducted and PRISMA diagram was utilized. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were employed. Search strategy was done using PubMed, CENTRAL, and Google Scholar. Search terms included were telemedicine, hypertension, adherence, and randomized. Data analysis was done using RevMan. Results: Eleven studies have shown improvement/controlled blood pressure with the use of telemedicine. Telemedicine contributed to Systolic and Diastolic blood pressure (SBP and DBP) reductions. It also improved the adherence to anti-hypertensive medications of the patients. Studies were also compared based on pre-COVID-19 pandemic and during/post-COVID-19 pandemic. Results showed that there was improvement and/or control of blood pressure and SBP reductions of the patients in both pre and post COVID-19 pandemic. However, it was reported that there was no significant DBP reduction in during/post-COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusion: With the obtained results, it is therefore recommended for telemedicine to continuously be part of the healthcare system. Aside from hypertension, telemedicine may also be used in other diseases requiring daily intake of medications and monitoring.