Impact of digital health interventions for adolescents with type 1 diabetes mellitus on health literacy: a systematic review

BACKGROUND: Evidence shows that living with diabetes mellitus type 1 (T1DM) in adolescent age is particularly challenging and difficult to manage. A high level of health literacy is important to prevent and avoid debilitating complications. Despite the increasing prevalence and incidence of T1DM by adolescent and the large use of digital health interventions, little is known about the association between this use and health literacy. This systematic review provides an overview on the impact of digital health interventions for adolescents with type 1 diabetes on health literacy and derive recommendations for further research. METHODS: Electronic searches were performed in five databases in Medline (Medline, PubMed + via PubMed), The Cochrane Library, EMBASE (via Ovid), Web of Science and PsycINFO from 2011 to 2021. In addition, grey literature searches were conducted in Google Scholar, OAlster and Trip. Relevant studies that have been missed by electronic and hand-searching strategies were searched in the reference lists of all included studies. The review followed PRISMA guidelines. Two researchers independently screened abstracts for initial eligibility and applied the inclusion and exclusion criteria to the relevant full-text articles. Quality was assessed using the tools RoB2 Cochrane, ROBINS I, NOS (Newcastle–Ottawa Scale), CASP (Critical Appraisal Skills Programme) for primary studies and Amstar-2 for secondary studies. RESULTS: Out of 981 studies, 22 were included in the final review. Most primary studies included in this review were judged as moderate overall risk of bias or with some concerns and most of the secondary studies as critically low quality reviews. Our findings suggest that the interplay of health care providers (HCP) and patients through social media helps the management of the disease. This corroborates Bröder et al.’ (2017) dimension of ‘communication and interactions’ in their concept of health literacy. CONCLUSIONS: For adolescents with T1DM, social media may be a specific and beneficial intervention for an improved communication and interaction with their HCP. Further research should investigate what specific form of social media suits best for which adolescents. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The study protocol was registered on the 15th of November 2021 on Prospero (reg. NR: CRD42021282199). SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12902-023-01321-6.