2 research outputs found
Mapping evidence of mobile health technologies for disease diagnosis and treatment support by health workers in sub-Saharan Africa : a scoping review
BACKGROUND: The rapid growth of mobile technology has given rise to the development of mobile health (mHealth)
applications aimed at treating and preventing a wide range of health conditions. However, evidence on the use
of mHealth in high disease burdened settings such as sub-Sharan Africa is not clear. Given this, we systematically
mapped evidence on mHealth for disease diagnosis and treatment support by health workers in sub-Saharan Africa.
METHODS: We conducted a scoping review study guided by the Arksey and O’Malley’s framework, Levac et al. recommendations,
and Joanna Briggs Institute guidelines. We thoroughly searched the following databases: MEDLINE and
CINAHL with full text via EBSCOhost; PubMed; Science Direct and Google Scholar for relevant articles from the inception
of mHealth technology to April 2020. Two reviewers independently screened abstracts and full-text articles using
the eligibility criteria as reference. This study employed the mixed methods appraisal tool version 2018 to assess the
methodological quality of the included studies.
RESULTS: Out of the 798 articles identified, only 12 published articles presented evidence on the availability and
use of mHealth for disease diagnosis and treatment support by health workers in SSA since 2010. Of the 12 studies,
four studies were conducted in Kenya; two in Malawi; two in Nigeria; one in South Africa; one in Zimbabwe; one in
Mozambique, and one in Lesotho. Out of the 12 studies, one reported the use of mHealth for diseases diagnosis; three
reported the use of mHealth to manage HIV; two on the management of HIV/TB; two on the treatment of malaria;
one each on the management of hypertension; cervical cancer; and three were not specific on any disease condition.
All the 12 included studies underwent methodological quality appraisal with a scored between 70 and 100%.
CONCLUSIONS: The study shows that there is limited research on the availability and use of mHealth by health workers
for disease diagnosis and treatment support in sub-Saharan Africa. We, therefore, recommend primary studies focusing
on the use of mHealth by health workers for disease diagnosis and treatment support in sub-Saharan Africa.Additional file 1:
Electronic databases search results for the title screening.Additional file 2:
Full articles screening results and output of degree of agreement in Stata version 13.Additional file 3:
Methodological quality assessment.https://bmcmedinformdecismak.biomedcentral.compm2021School of Health Systems and Public Health (SHSPH
Systematic review and meta-analysis of the diagnostic accuracy of mobile-linked point-of-care diagnostics in sub-saharan Africa
Mobile health devices are emerging applications that could help deliver point-of-care (POC)
diagnosis, particularly in settings with limited laboratory infrastructure, such as Sub-Saharan Africa
(SSA). The advent of Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 has resulted in an increased
deployment and use of mHealth-linked POC diagnostics in SSA. We performed a systematic review
and meta-analysis to evaluate the accuracy of mobile-linked point-of-care diagnostics in SSA. Our
systematic review and meta-analysis were guided by the Preferred Reporting Items requirements
for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis. We exhaustively searched PubMed, Science Direct,
Google Scholar, MEDLINE, and CINAHL with full text via EBSCOhost databases, from mHealth
inception to March 2021. The statistical analyses were conducted using OpenMeta-Analyst software.
All 11 included studies were considered for the meta-analysis. The included studies focused on
malaria infections, Schistosoma haematobium, Schistosoma mansoni, soil-transmitted helminths, and
Trichuris trichiura. The pooled summary of sensitivity and specificity estimates were moderate
compared to those of the reference representing the gold standard. The overall pooled estimates of
sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio, and diagnostic odds ratio of
mobile-linked POC diagnostic devices were as follows: 0.499 (95% CI: 0.458–0.541), 0.535 (95% CI:
0.401–0.663), 0.952 (95% CI: 0.60–1.324), 1.381 (95% CI: 0.391–4.879), and 0.944 (95% CI: 0.579–1.538),
respectively. Evidence shows that the diagnostic accuracy of mobile-linked POC diagnostics in
detecting infections in SSA is presently moderate. Future research is recommended to evaluate
mHealth devices’ diagnostic potential using devices with excellent sensitivities and specificities for
diagnosing diseases in this setting.Supplementary file S1: Results from the initial database search.https://www.mdpi.com/journal/diagnosticsam2022School of Health Systems and Public Health (SHSPH