Mapping Evidence of Mobile Health Technologies for Disease Diagnosis and Treatment Support by Health Workers in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Scoping Review

Abstract Background: The rapid growth of mobile technology has given rise to the development of mobile health programmes aimed at treating and preventing a wide range of health conditions. However, evidence on the use of mHealth in high disease burdened settings such as SSA is not clear. We systematically mapped evidence on mHealth for disease diagnosis and treatment support by health workers in SSA. Methods: We conducted a scoping review study guided by the Arksey and O’Malley’s framework, Levac et al recommendations, and Joanna Briggs Institute guidelines. We thoroughly searched the following databases: MEDLINE and CINAHL with full-text via EBSCOhost; PubMed; Science Direct and Google Scholar for relevant articles from inception to July 2019. Two independent reviewers screened abstracts and full-text articles using the eligibility criteria as reference. This study employed the mixed methods appraisal tool version 2018 to assess the methodological quality of the included studies. Results: Out of the 572 articles identified , only 10 published articles presented evidence on mHealth for treatment support by health workers in SSA since 2010. No studies reported evidence on mHealth for disease diagnosis by health workers in SSA. Of the 10 studies, four studies were conducted in Kenya; one in South Africa; one in Malawi; one in Zimbabwe; one in Mozambique; one in Nigeria and one in Lesotho. Of the 10 studies: three reported the use of mHealth to manage HIV; two on the management of HIV/TB; two on treatment of malaria; one each on the management of hypertension; cervical cancer; and one was not specific on any disease condition. All the 10 included studies underwent methodological quality appraisal with a scored between 70 and 100%. Conclusions: The study shows that there is limited research on the availability and use of mHealth by health workers for treatment support in SSA. This study also shows there is no literature on the availability and use of mHealth by health workers for disease diagnosis in SSA. We, therefore, recommend primary studies focusing on the use of mHealth by health workers for disease diagnosis in SSA. Keywords: Mobile Health; Disease diagnosis; Treatment support; sub-Saharan Africa