Department of Community Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa.
JMIR Res Protoc. 2024 Jul 31;13:e50479. doi: 10.2196/50479.
Periodontal health plays a key role as a shared reference point for evaluating periodontal diseases and identifying significant treatment outcomes. Providing adequate instruction and enhancing the motivation of patients to maintain proper oral hygiene are crucial factors for successful periodontal treatment, with self-performed regular oral hygiene identified as a critical factor in improving the outcomes of treatment for periodontal diseases. Recently, mobile health (mHealth) solutions, especially mobile apps, have emerged as valuable tools for self-management in chronic diseases such as periodontal disease, providing essential health education and monitoring capabilities. However, the use of mHealth apps for periodontal health is complex owing to various interacting components such as patient behavior, socioeconomic status, and adherence to oral hygiene practices. Existing literature has indicated positive effects of mHealth on oral health behaviors, knowledge, attitude, practice, plaque index score, and gingivitis reduction. However, there has been no systematic review of mobile apps specifically targeting patients with periodontal disease. Understanding the design and impact of mHealth apps is crucial for creating high-quality apps.
The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to evaluate the effectiveness of existing mobile apps in promoting periodontal health.
A comprehensive search strategy will be performed in multiple electronic databases (PubMed, EBSCOhost, CINAHL Plus, Dentistry & Oral Sciences, ScienceDirect, Scopus, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials) with the following keywords in the title/abstract: "mobile application," "mobile health," "mHealth," "telemedicine," "periodontal health," "periodontitis," and "text message." Only randomized controlled trials will be included that assessed the following outcomes to measure periodontal health improvement: gingival index, bleeding index, periodontal pocket depth, and clinical attachment loss. Covidence will be used for data collection, and a PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses) flowchart will be used to describe the selection process of the included, identified, and excluded studies. The Confidence in Network Meta-Analysis approach will be used for meta-analysis of the extracted data from the included studies.
This review will not require ethical approval since no primary data will be included. As of July 2024, a total of 83 articles retrieved from various databases have been imported to Covidence with 13 articles deemed eligible for inclusion in the review. The review is currently ongoing and is expected to be complete by the end of 2024 with the results published in early 2025.
This systematic review and meta-analysis will contribute to developing mobile apps with enhanced criteria to improve periodontal clinical outcomes. The review emphasizes the importance of mHealth and preventing periodontal disease, which can set the stage for informed global health care strategies.
PROSPERO CRD42022340827; https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=340827.
INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/50479.
牙周健康是评估牙周疾病和确定重要治疗结果的共同参考点，起着关键作用。为患者提供充分的指导并增强其保持良好口腔卫生的动机是牙周病治疗成功的关键因素，患者自行定期进行口腔卫生被认为是改善牙周病治疗结果的关键因素。最近，移动健康（mHealth）解决方案，特别是移动应用程序，已成为慢性疾病（如牙周病）自我管理的有价值工具，提供了必要的健康教育和监测能力。然而，由于患者行为、社会经济地位和对口腔卫生实践的依从性等各种相互作用的因素，mHealth 应用程序在牙周健康方面的使用较为复杂。现有文献表明，mHealth 对口腔健康行为、知识、态度、实践、菌斑指数评分和牙龈炎减少有积极影响。然而，目前还没有针对牙周病患者的专门移动应用程序的系统评价。了解 mHealth 应用程序的设计和影响对于创建高质量的应用程序至关重要。
本系统评价和荟萃分析旨在评估现有的移动应用程序在促进牙周健康方面的效果。
将在多个电子数据库（PubMed、EBSCOhost、CINAHL Plus、Dentistry & Oral Sciences、ScienceDirect、Scopus 和 Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials）中执行全面的搜索策略，并在标题/摘要中使用以下关键词：“移动应用程序”、“移动健康”、“mHealth”、“远程医疗”、“牙周健康”、“牙周炎”和“短信”。仅纳入评估以下指标以衡量牙周健康改善的随机对照试验：牙龈指数、出血指数、牙周袋深度和临床附着丧失。Covidence 将用于数据收集，并且将使用 PRISMA（系统评价和荟萃分析的首选报告项目）流程图来描述纳入、确定和排除研究的选择过程。将使用置信网络荟萃分析方法对纳入研究中提取的数据进行荟萃分析。
由于不包括原始数据，因此本次审查无需伦理批准。截至 2024 年 7 月，已从各个数据库中总共检索到 83 篇文章，并将其导入 Covidence，其中有 13 篇文章被认为符合纳入审查的条件。目前正在进行审查，预计到 2024 年底完成，结果将于 2025 年初公布。
本系统评价和荟萃分析将有助于开发具有增强标准的移动应用程序，以改善牙周临床结果。该综述强调了 mHealth 和预防牙周病的重要性，这可以为制定明智的全球卫生保健策略奠定基础。
PROSPERO CRD42022340827；https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=340827。
国际注册报告标识符（IRRID）：DERR1-10.2196/50479。
