Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Apr 19, 2023
Open Peer Review Period: Apr 19, 2023 - May 4, 2023
Date Accepted: Jul 19, 2023
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Real-world evidence of a hospital-linked digital health application for control of hypertension and diabetes mellitus in South Korea: a nationwide multicenter study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Detailed instructions on how to select and incorporate technologies for particular target groups in diabetes or hypertension care are still lacking.
Objective:
We aimed to investigate the real-world effectiveness of using hospital-linked digital healthcare applications in lowering blood pressure (BP) and blood glucose levels in patients with hypertension and/or diabetes mellitus.
Methods:
A nationwide multicenter data on demographic characteristics and the use of a digital healthcare application from 233 hospitals were collected for participants aged 20 to 80 years in South Korea between August 2021 and June 2022. All the patients used a digital healthcare application for 12 weeks. A total of 1,029 participants analyzed for the fasting blood glucose (FBG) level, 527 participants for the postprandial glucose (PPG) level, and 2,029 participants for the systolic BP (SBP) and diastolic BP (DBP) were enrolled. The primary outcome was the differences in the SBP, DBP, FBG level, and PPG level between baseline and 12 weeks.
Results:
After 12 weeks, a hospital-linked digital health application was found to reduce SBP and DBP in participants without hypertension and FBG level in all participants; however, there was no statistically significant difference compared to the control group (using only digital health application). Especially, participants with diabetes using a hospital-linked digital health application demonstrated a considerable decrease in PPG after 12 weeks compared with using an only digital health application (P=0.006).
Conclusions:
Although using digital health technology requires a highly compliant patient, hospital-linked digital interventions for the management of diabetes have greatly improved glucose control compared with using digital health technology only. Through a nationwide multicenter study (233 hospitals), these hospital-linked digital health applications have the potential to offer consumers and healthcare professionals cost-effective support in decreasing glucose levels when used in conjunction with self-monitoring.
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