Digital health interventions are becoming more and more popular and for good reasons. A new study published by the International Journal of Cardiology shows that Digital Health Interventions can be very effective in reducing mortality rates. The study followed over 7000 patients with heart failure and found that those who used digital health interventions had a significant reduction in mortality rates. This is great news for health professionals looking for ways to improve patient outcomes!
Digital health interventions are programs or tools that use digital technology to improve health outcomes. They can include things like mobile apps, websites, or social media platforms, and remote patient monitoring with device-reported data.
A number of databases, including MEDLINE, Cochrane, OVID, CINHAL and ERIC, databases were searched through August 2021 for randomized clinical trials that evaluated the outcomes among patients with Heart Failure who utilized Digital Health Interventions. The review weighted a follow-up duration of 15.6 months.
Compared with the reference group, patients in the Digital Health Interventions group had lower all-cause mortality as well as lower cardiovascular mortality.
All-cause mortality was reduced from 10.2% to 8.5%. Cardiovascular mortality was reduced from 9.6% to 7.3%.
The number of lost days due to Heart Failure-related hospitalizations was also lower in the Digital Health Interventions group. There were no differences in all-cause hospitalizations and HF hospitalizations.
Some of the study's limitations that researchers noted included the use of study-level data as opposed to patient-level data, a potentially limited database of referenced data, variations in study endpoints, and a lack of representation of women. However, these limitations do not negate the potential Digital Health Interventions have in reducing mortality rates among heart failure patients. Further research is needed to explore this possibility.
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