Effectiveness of Digital Health Interventions to Improve Self-Care in Patients With Chronic Diseases: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials
Jessica Longhini, Daniel Pedrotti, Federica Foladori, Melania Stedile, Francesca Stefani, Michela Dal Ben, Alessandro Froner, Marta Proietti Pesci, Stefano Toccoli, Anna Brugnolli, Stefano Brini, Susanna Strandberg, Cam Escoffery · 2026
Read Effectiveness of Digital Health Interventions to Improve Self-Care in Patients With Chronic Diseases: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials by Jessica Longhini, Daniel Pedrotti, Federica Foladori, Melania Stedile, Francesca Stefani, Michela Dal Ben, Alessandro Froner, Marta Proietti Pesci, Stefano Toccoli, Anna Brugnolli, Stefano Brini, Susanna Strandberg, Cam Escoffery (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13291736.txt.
Description
Jessica Longhini and a large team pool trials of digital tools for chronic disease self-care in a 2026 meta-analysis. Apps, telemonitoring, and connected devices all promise to help patients manage long illnesses. The team searched four databases for randomized trials from 2013 through 2025 that used validated self-care scales. Fifty-five trials with 5,889 participants qualified. Results were pooled with random-effects models and graded for certainty.
In diabetes, pooled self-care gains were little to none across diet, exercise, foot care, and glucose checks. Heart failure monitoring probably improved, with a moderate effect in five studies. Other heart failure self-care measures stayed unclear. Medication adherence across seventeen studies barely moved, and certainty was very low. Some other conditions showed hints of benefit in single studies, while lung disease and multimorbidity showed none. The authors conclude that digital self-care support is promising yet far from proven.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Jessica Longhini, Daniel Pedrotti, Federica Foladori, Melania Stedile, Francesca Stefani, Michela Dal Ben, Alessandro Froner, Marta Proietti Pesci, Stefano Toccoli, Anna Brugnolli, Stefano Brini, Susanna Strandberg, Cam Escoffery |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 58 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |