The Efficacy of Tele-Monitoring in Maintaining Glycated Haemoglobin Levels in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Systematic Review

Background: It is well documented that telemedicine offers effective accessibility and consistency which are useful in overcoming the barriers associated with the traditional delivery of chronic disease management. Furthermore, home-based telemonitoring approach for managing chronic disease conditions has been shown to break geographical barriers and facilitate provider-to-patient communication. However, the efficacy of telemedicine in reducing HbA1c is debatable.

Aim: This systematic review aims to evaluate the effect of telemedicine on glycaemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Method: This systematic review has been conducted in line with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework. Searches were primarily conducted using the EBSCOhost database. Other search engines such as Cochrane Library and Google scholar were also used and search of grey literature was performed using google, NHS.uk website, WHO websites, and gov.uk website. Nine articles were included in this review.

Results: Three themes were identified in this review including diabetes education/telemonitoring technology and glycaemic control, the attitude of participants, and cost effectiveness of tele-medicine. While three studies reported improved glycaemic control with statistically significant improvement in HbA1c compared to the control group, three other studies did not find significant improvement in glycaemic control. In addition, the findings suggest that participants' positive attitude to self-care can lead to an improved HbA1c, and finally, several of the selected studies found that telemonitoring is not cost-effective.

Conclusion: The findings of this review show that telemedicine may be effective in managing blood glucose in patients with type 2 diabetes. However, factors such as educational level of patients, attitude and costs may limit its application in primary care. More studies are required to fully establish the effectiveness of Telemonitoring in managing patients with type 2 diabetes.