Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2021 Jun 16:25:100417.
doi: 10.1016/j.invent.2021.100417. eCollection 2021 Sep.

A review of mobile health interventions for public private mix in tuberculosis care

Wilson Tumuhimbise  1 , Angella Musiimenta  1   2
Affiliations
Review

A review of mobile health interventions for public private mix in tuberculosis care

Wilson Tumuhimbise et al. Internet Interv. .

Abstract

Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends the use of mobile health (mHealth) technologies as emerging opportunities to closing the gaps in Tuberculosis (TB) care through enhancing Public Private Mix (PPM). However, little is known about mHealth interventions that have been used for enhancing PPM in TB care, those that worked and those that did not.

Objective: This review summarizes the published evidence on the utilization and effectiveness of mHealth interventions for public private mix in TB care from literature.

Methods: Google scholar, PUBMED, IEEE Xplore and ScienceDirect databases were searched for peer reviewed literature from 1st January 2003 to 31st December 2020 for studies about the mHealth interventions for public private mix in TB care. This was guided by the scoping review methodology proposed by Arksey and O' Malley. In order to assess the quality of the selected studies, mHealth evidence reporting and assessment (mERA) checklist was utilized. Studies that discussed the utilization of mHealth interventions for implementing PPM in TB care were included. Nine studies met the inclusion criteria and were analyzed for review.

Results: The review found out the application of mHealth in Public Private Mix in TB care through the following ways; 1) TB screening, 2) TB case notification 3) TB treatment adherence 4) data collection and management 5) patient referral and follow up, and 6) education. This resulted into high user experience, significant time reduction in data aggregation, increased case notification and referrals and proactive tracking and provision of follow up care hence reduced treatment and completion gaps. One study yielded suboptimal utilization due to the technical and operational challenges encountered by the healthcare workers.

Conclusion: Although this scoping review highlights the role of mHealth technologies in enhancing PPM in TB care, its utilization is still limited in African settings. No Africa-based study was identified by this review. Future studies should focus on assessing the utilization of mHealth for PPM in Africa.

Keywords: Digital health; Public private mix; Review; TB; Tuberculosis; mHealth.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

None.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flow diagram for the selected studies.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The percentage of studies meeting the mERA criteria. Showing the percentage of studies meeting the mERA criteria.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Percentage of studies meeting the mERA criteria. Showing the studies meeting the mERA criteria.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Agarwal S., LeFevre A.E., Lee J., L'Engle K., Mehl G., Sinha C., Labrique A. Guidelines for reporting of health interventions using mobile phones: mobile health (mHealth) evidence reporting and assessment (mERA) checklist. bmj. 2016;352:i1174. doi: 10.1136/bmj.i1174. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ali S.M., Powers R., Beorse J., Noor A., Naureen F., Anjum N., Ishaq M., Aamir J., Anderson R. ODK scan: digitizing data collection and impacting data management processes in Pakistan's tuberculosis control program. Futur. Internet. 2016;8(4):51. doi: 10.3390/fi8040051. - DOI
    1. Alipanah N., Jarlsberg L., Miller C., Linh N.N., Falzon D., Jaramillo E., Nahid P. Adherence interventions and outcomes of tuberculosis treatment: a systematic review and meta-analysis of trials and observational studies. PLoS Med. 2018;15(7):e1002595. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1002595. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Anand T., Babu R., Jacob A.G., Sagili K., Chadha S.S. Enhancing the role of private practitioners in tuberculosis prevention and care activities in India. Lung India. 2017;34(6):538. doi: 10.4103/0970-2113.217577. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Arksey H., O'Malley L. Scoping studies: towards a methodological framework. Int. J. Soc. Res. Methodol. 2005;8(1):19–32. doi: 10.1080/1364557032000119616. - DOI

LinkOut - more resources