Application of mobile health in self-management on non-communicable chronic diseases – a review

Abstract

With the increasing burden of non-communicable chronic diseases (NCDs) around the world, NCDs have become an important public health problem threatening human health, and the management on NCDs is also facing tough challenges. In the past decade, mobile health has been expanding as an emerging field, showing broad application prospects in the self-management of patients with NCDs. By providing effective self-management support for patients with NCDs, mobile health plays an important role in helping patients monitoring and managing their disease symptoms, improving drug treatment adherence, promoting the change of unhealthy lifestyle and improving the prognosis of patients. The study systematically reviews current status, existing problems and prospects of mobile health applications in the self-management of four NCDs, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic respiratory disease and diabetes for providing reference to further research in this field.

Keywords

• mobile health
• chronic non-communicable diseases
• self-management
• application