Risk Management and Healthcare Policy (Apr 2023)

Leveraging mHealth for the Treatment and Management of PLHIV

  • Kruse CS,
  • Pacheco GJ,
  • Rosenthal N,
  • Kopp CJ,
  • Omorotionmwan O,
  • Cruz JE

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 16
pp. 677 – 697

Abstract

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Clemens Scott Kruse, Gerardo J Pacheco, Noah Rosenthal, Caris J Kopp, Omosigho Omorotionmwan, John E Cruz Texas State University, School of Health Administration, 601 University Drive, San Marcos, TX, 78666, USACorrespondence: Clemens Scott Kruse, Email [email protected]: The objective of this systematic review was to analyze published literature from the last five years to assess facilitators and barriers to the adoption of mHealth as interventions to treat and manage HIV for PLHIV (people living with HIV). The primary outcomes were physical and mental conditions. The secondary outcomes were behavior based (substance use, care engagement, and healthy habits).Methods: Four databases (PubMed, CINAHL, Web of Science, and ScienceDirect) were queried on 9/2/2022 for peer-reviewed studies on the treatment and management of PLHIV with mHealth as the intervention. The review was conducted in accordance with the Kruse Protocol and reported in accordance with PRISMA 2020.Results: Five mHealth interventions were identified across 32 studies that resulted in improvements in physical health, mental health, care engagement, and behavior change. mHealth interventions offer both convenience and privacy, meet a digital preference, increase health knowledge, decrease healthcare utilization, and increase quality of life. Barriers are cost of technology and incentives, training of staff, security concerns, digital literacy gap, distribution of technology, technical issues, usability, and visual cues are not available over the phone.Conclusion: mHealth offers interventions to improve physical health, mental health, care engagement, and behavior for PLHIV. There are many advantages to this intervention and very few barriers to its adoption. The barriers are strong, however, and should be addressed through policy. Further research should focus on specific apps for younger versus older PLHIV, based on preferences and the digital literacy gap.Keywords: mHealth, eHealth, telehealth, telemedicine, human immunodeficiency virus, HIV

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