Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Oct 16, 2017
Open Peer Review Period: Oct 17, 2017 - Nov 1, 2017
Date Accepted: Dec 4, 2017
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Role of Social Media in Diabetes Management in the Middle East Region: Systematic Review
ABSTRACT
Background:
Diabetes is a major health care burden in the Middle East region. Social networking tools can contribute to the management of diabetes with improved educational and care outcomes using these popular tools in the region.
Objective:
The objective of this review was to evaluate the impact of social networking interventions on the improvement of diabetes management and health outcomes in patients with diabetes in the Middle East.
Methods:
Peer-reviewed articles from PubMed (1990-2017) and Google Scholar (1990-2017) were identified using various combinations of predefined terms and search criteria. The main inclusion criterion consisted of the use of social networking apps on mobile phones as the primary intervention. Outcomes were grouped according to study design, type of diabetes, category of technological intervention, location, and sample size.
Results:
This review included 5 articles evaluating the use of social media tools in the management of diabetes in the Middle East. In most studies, the acceptance rate for the use of social networking to optimize the management of diabetes was relatively high. Diabetes-specific management tools such as the Saudi Arabia Networking for Aiding Diabetes and Diabetes Intelligent Management System for Iraq systems helped collect patient information and lower hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels, respectively.
Conclusions:
The reviewed studies demonstrated the potential of social networking tools being adopted in regions in the Middle East to improve the management of diabetes. Future studies consisting of larger sample sizes spanning multiple regions would provide further insight into the use of social media for improving patient outcomes.
Citation
Per the author's request the PDF is not available.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.