The applications and the effectiveness of mHealth interventions to manage lung cancer patients: a systematic review

摘要

Abstract Objectives Despite the mHealth interventions’ potential to provide remote services and help in the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer patients, the impact of these interventions has not been investigated yet. The aim of this study was to identify mHealth interventions for the care of lung cancer patients and evaluate their effectiveness.Methods All mHealth intervention studies for lung cancer management were searched in PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases using a combination of the terms “smartphone applications”, “lung” and “cancer” for dates between January 2008 and May 2022. Data were collected using a data collection form developed by researchers. To determine the type of interventions, studies were classified according to the categories of mHealth interventions defined by WHO.Results In the fourteen relevant studies, applications focused on a specific topics such as diagnosis (n?=?4), treatment (n?=?1), follow-up (n?=?3), self-management (n?=?3), and rehabilitation (n?=?3). Of the six categories of mHealth interventions defined by WHO, relevant studies covered only two categories: “health monitoring and surveillance” and “access to information for health care professionals”. Thirty-one outcomes were extracted and showed that most studies focused on the effectiveness of applications in diagnosis and treatment.Conclusion Most mHealth interventions dealing with lung cancer focus on monitoring patients and providing information to specialists. Despite the potential impact of interventions on outcomes such as improving diagnosis, treatment, and patient quality of life, there is insufficient evidence to quantify their impact. Therefore, more studies are needed in this field.