Mobile apps for disadvantaged societies

Maia, Janize Silva; Marin, Heimar de Fátima

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Brasil

Acta Paulista de Enfermagem

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Brasil

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Sumário

Review Article • Acta Paul Enferm 34 • 2021 • https://doi.org/10.37689/acta-ape/2021AR02214 copy

Mobile apps for disadvantaged societies

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

Abstract

Objective

To describe the impacts of mobile applications directly in favor of the health of disadvantaged communities living in low-income or developing countries and, indirectly, through healthcare professionals providing assistance in these areas.

Methods

This is an integrative literature review in the PubMed, SciELO and LILACS databases of original evidence-based research, published between 2010 and 2019, available in full and in Brazilian Portuguese and English, through the guiding question: “What is the impact of mobile applications on direct and indirect health care in low-income and developing populations?”. The following descriptors were used: biomedical technology, health information and mobile applications, the latter being present in all intersections. The strategy of search, selection and categorization of studies was performed by the reading of a researcher.

Results

The applications demonstrated benefits regarding the diagnosis of diseases, users’ treatment adherence, patient follow-up by health professionals and self-care, constituting an important tool for monitoring and managing diseases.

Conclusion

Mobile technology has the potential to improve primary care services through qualification of health care promoted by professionals and direct access of users, especially in low-income countries, whose health indicators are worrisome.

Mobile applications; Biomedical technology; Access to information

Year	Author	Study/reference	Type of study	Study subject	Objective	Study considerations	Application influence
2019	Menezes et al ⁽⁹⁾	Use of a Mobile Phone App to Treat Depression Comorbid With Hypertension or Diabetes: A Pilot Study in Brazil and Peru	Experimental study	Patients with signs of depression	Exploring the potential efficacy of a mobile health intervention to help people with depressive symptoms and comorbidity hypertension or diabetes	The mobile application proved to be viable to help treat patients with comorbid depressive symptoms in low- and middle-income countries.	An important reduction in depressive symptoms of diabetic and hypertensive patients.
2019	Rajbhandari et al⁽¹⁰⁾	Epilepsy field workers, a smartphone application and telephone telemedicine: Safe and effective epilepsy care in rural Nepal.	Experimental study	Patients with signs and symptoms of epilepsy	Proposing a new model of care, from the development of a smartphone application for diagnosis of epilepsy from seizures	The application provided considerable assistance in the diagnosis of epilepsy, as well as in the interruption and reduction of seizures caused by epilepsy, receiving the preference of patients to this service offered, avoiding displacement scans to medical services for diagnosis.	Agility in diagnosis; Significant reduction in patient displacements for access to medical services.
2017	Carroll et al⁽¹¹⁾	Who Uses Mobile Phone Health Apps and Does Use Matter? The Secondary Data Analytics Approach.	Almost experimental, cross-sectional, data association study	Application users	Describing the social and demographic characteristics associated with the use of health applications in a recent representative sample from the USA; assessing attitudes and behaviors of users of health applications for health promotion; assessing the association between the use of health-related applications and the recommended guidelines for fruit and vegetable intake and physical activity, informing populations more and less likely to use health applications.	Despite the lack of evidence of clinical efficacy and integration with the health system and the need for formal assessment and review, and potential threats to safety and privacy, applications can improve users’ health, and provide information about populations more and less likely to use health applications to guide clinical interventions through commercial and public health programs.	Valuable progress in the health of application users.
2017	Uddin et al⁽¹²⁾	Impact of mobile phone-based technology to improve health, population and nutrition services in Rural Bangladesh: a study protocol	Experimental study	Women from a rural Bangladeshi community	Developing, testing and assessing the impact of a mobile health strategy mechanism on improving reproductive health and family planning, maternal, neonatal and child health, integrated child disease management, vaccination program and other primary health services of communities in rural Bangladesh.	Cell phone-based technology has the potential to improve primary health care services by speeding up access to information and strategies for the care of maternal and child health services in low-income countries.	Significant improvement in the coverage of primary health care services in a country of extreme poverty, reducing the search for medium-complexity health
2013	Blank et al⁽¹³⁾	Quality of prenatal and maternal care: bridging the know-do gap” (QUALMAT study): an elecronic clinical decision support system for rural Sub-Saharan Africa)	Randomized controlled experimental study	Health professionals in rural areas	Improving the performance and motivation of rural health workers and the quality of care services developed at the primary level of maternal health care in Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Tanzania.	The computerized system of clinical decision support was introduced in rural centers where health professionals of different educational levels work, due to the underdeveloped scenario of the country, with significant improvement in its performance.	Enrichment of the quality of health care in primary care promoted by professionals working in underdeveloped places.
2013	Mitchell et al⁽¹⁴⁾	Using electronic technology to improve clinical care - results from a before-after cluster trial to assess assessment and classification of sick children according to Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) protocol in Tanzania)	Experimental study	Health professionals	Estimating the impact of electronic technology on adherence to integrated care protocols for prevalent diseases in childhood, compared to current paper-based protocols in Tanzania	The study demonstrated the benefit of technology in providing a proven standard of care in a rural and semi-urban area of Tanzania, a country of extreme poverty, based on the quality of care of the professionals who used it.	Qualification of clinical care of professionals working in low-income countries.
2012	Mitchell et al⁽¹⁵⁾	Perceived improvement integrated management of childhood illness implementation through use of mobile technology: qualitative evidence from a pilot study in Tanzania)	Experience report	Health care providers and caregivers of the Integrated Electronic Management of Childhood Diseases	Assessing caregivers’ and health professionals’ perception about treatment of childhood diseases when compared to conventional paper forms through qualitative interviews.	Health care providers’ perception of receiving more information made the use of digital personal assistants, expanding their knowledge about treatment of childhood diseases in a country of extreme poverty.	Agility in access to information about the treatment to be performed, offered more quickly, especially in low-income places.
2012	Pellegrini et al⁽¹⁶⁾	A smartphone supported weight loss program: design of the ENGAGED randomized controlled trial	Experimental study	People with obesity	Examining the feasibility and effectiveness of a smartphone-supported weight loss program.	There was a significant reduction in obesity in patients who used the technology.	Change of habits and behaviors of users through the goals of the application.
2011	Florez-Arango et al⁽¹⁷⁾	Performance factors of mobile rich media job aids for community health workers	Randomized controlled experimental study	Community health worker	Studying and analyzing the possible performance benefits of community health agents using out-of-care clinical guidelines implemented as interactive rich media work aids on small-format mobile platforms.	Widespread acceptance of this resource by community health agents with lower educational levels and serving populations with very poor literacy indicating encouraging prospects for mobile health technologies in general and the use of clinical guidelines on mobile phones in particular	Improvement of health care due to the ease of access to information of professionals who serve a population with low level of education in underdeveloped places.

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[1] Corresponding author Janize Silva Maia E-mail: janizecs@yahoo.com.br