Digital Health Interventions and Their Impact on Chronic Disease Management in Low-Resource Settings

Abstract

Digital health interventions (DHIs), such as mobile health (mHealth), telemedicine, and decision support systems have a considerable potential for better chronic disease management in low resource settings. This paper is a review of the current evidence on the use and effectiveness of DHIs for non-communicable diseases (NCDs), such as diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease, in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). While many interventions have positive outcomes in terms of the delivery and quality of others services such as adherence to medication and access to care, clinical outcomes are more mixed. Imposed barriers to implementation like: lack of infrastructure, low digital literacy, low integration with existing health systems and lack of political commitment often hinder their impact. Digital health literacy becomes an important enabler to support patients to play a more active role in the management of their own health, and to make informed health choices. This paper is suggesting that thoughtful design, context-specific adaptation, system-level integration, and policy alignment can increase the effectiveness of DHIs to contribute significantly toward the control of chronic diseases in resource-constrained environments.