Analysis of the effectiveness of remote intervention of patients affected by chronic diseases: A systematic review and meta-analysis

OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to verify the effectiveness of telemedicine in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in terms of its influence on physical conditioning, quality of life, and health conditions in adults/elderly people affected by chronic diseases. DESIGN: This was a systematic review and meta-analysis. METHODS: The search covered RCTs published from 2011 to 2021 and was conducted using the PubMed, Embase, PEDro, Lilacs, and Cochrane Library databases, on volunteers of both sexes, that were rehabilitated, and/or monitored, and/or evaluated, specifically, via remote care. The extraction, quality of studies, and risk of bias were assessed using the RoB2 (risk of bias) tool, for analysis of the strength of evidence, the GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Developing, and Evaluation) method was used, and for the preparation of meta-analysis was used at RevMan 5.4 (Review Manager) was used. RESULTS: The database search identified 3949 potential articles for screening, 13 of which were eligible for the present systematic review, involving 1469 participants with chronic diseases (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, heart failure, diabetes mellitus, and fibromyalgia). Through the meta-analysis, an advantage was identified for the remote intervention on physical conditioning (p = 0.001), with an estimated effect of 0.29 (0.11, 0.46) and on health conditions (p = 0.0004), –0.30 (–0.47, –0.14), while for quality of life, no significant difference was identified (p = 0.90), 0.01 (–0.13, 0.14). CONCLUSION: Telemedicine has clinical effectiveness for the outcome of physical conditioning and general health conditions in adults with chronic diseases when compared to usual care without face-to-face intervention.