Department of Health Information Technology, Khalkhal University of Medical Sciences, Khalkhal, Iran.
Iranian Research Center for HIV/AIDS, Iranian Institute for Reduction of High-Risk Behaviors, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
AIDS Rev. 2022 Mar 1;24(1):24-31. doi: 10.24875/AIDSRev.21000025.
Self-management through mHealth by mobile apps creates new opportunities for people living with HIV (PLHIV) for integrated and accurate management. Our study focused on current evidence on HIV selfmanagement mobile applications to identify and assess their objective, infrastructure, and target populations. A systematic review was conducted on studies that use apps to improve self-management among HIV-positive patients, using PubMed, Scopus, Embase, Science direct, UpToDate, and Web of Science databases. The search was limited to English-written articles and published in the past 10 years. A search of Google Play for Android and App Store for iOS devices was performed to find the apps identified in the included articles. Concerning the aim of this study, the target populations of 17 identified HIV-apps were found to be mainly directed at PLHIV (n = 15). Furthermore, the objectives of 17 identified HIV-apps were found to self-care, self-monitoring, and self-management (n = 7), improve medication adherence (n = 5), prevention and treatment (n = 5), adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) (n = 4), Cognitive Behavioral Stress Management (n = 1), and support safer conception among HIV couples (n = 1). The operating system of most HIV-apps was Android (n = 15), one app for iOS and seven apps was both of them, and most apps were free (n = 19). The findings indicate that mHealth strategies for PLHIV have had a substantial positive effect on ART, drug adherence, prevention, and treatment, as well as social and behavioral problems affecting PLHIV. Even though the mHealth market needs to be regulated, it specifies that mHealth is relevant and should be used in the self-management, self-monitoring, and self-care of PLHIV.
通过移动应用程序的移动健康自我管理为 HIV 感染者 (PLHIV) 提供了综合和准确管理的新机会。我们的研究侧重于 HIV 自我管理移动应用程序的现有证据，以识别和评估其目标、基础设施和目标人群。我们对使用应用程序来改善 HIV 阳性患者自我管理的研究进行了系统评价，使用了 PubMed、Scopus、Embase、Science Direct、UpToDate 和 Web of Science 数据库。搜索仅限于英文撰写的文章，并在过去 10 年内发表。对 Google Play for Android 和 App Store for iOS 设备进行了搜索，以找到包含文章中确定的应用程序。关于本研究的目的，发现 17 种已识别的 HIV 应用程序的目标人群主要针对 PLHIV(n = 15)。此外，发现 17 种已识别的 HIV 应用程序的目标是自我护理、自我监测和自我管理(n = 7)、提高药物依从性(n = 5)、预防和治疗(n = 5)、抗逆转录病毒治疗 (ART) 依从性(n = 4)、认知行为压力管理(n = 1)和支持 HIV 夫妇更安全受孕(n = 1)。大多数 HIV 应用程序的操作系统是 Android(n = 15)，一个应用程序适用于 iOS，七个应用程序同时适用于两者，大多数应用程序都是免费的(n = 19)。研究结果表明，PLHIV 的移动健康策略对 ART、药物依从性、预防和治疗以及影响 PLHIV 的社会和行为问题产生了实质性的积极影响。尽管移动健康市场需要监管，但它明确指出移动健康与 PLHIV 的自我管理、自我监测和自我护理相关，应该得到应用。
