Educating Patients by Providing Timely Information Using Smartphone and Tablet Apps: Systematic Review

Area of Science:

• Digital health interventions
• Health services research
• Patient education technology

Background:

• Patient education is vital for healthcare, influencing decision-making, adherence, satisfaction, and outcomes.
• Patients often struggle to retain medical information due to information overload.
• Smartphone and tablet apps offer a solution for timely patient education via push notifications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review the impact of smartphone and tablet apps on patient education in hospital settings.
• To assess effects on patient knowledge, treatment adherence, and satisfaction.
• To identify characteristics of effective app-based interventions.

Main Methods:

• Systematic review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published between January 2015 and November 2019.
• Searches conducted across MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, and Web of Science.
• Narrative synthesis due to heterogeneity of studies; meta-analysis not performed.

Main Results:

• 21 RCTs involving 4106 participants were analyzed.
• Interventions demonstrated effectiveness in 69% of outcomes compared to usual care.
• Effectiveness increased with shorter intervention durations (<1 month) and frequent notifications (≥1/week).

Conclusions:

• Mobile health apps significantly improve patient knowledge, adherence, satisfaction, and clinical outcomes.
• Short-term, high-frequency app interventions yield the most pronounced positive effects.
• Integrating app-based timely information delivery into standard medical practice is recommended.