mHealth Interventions in South Africa: A Review

The South African health care system, despite recording some significant improvements since independence, still faces a number of health challenges. Mobile technologies application in health care, also known as mHealth, has been shown as feasible in helping alleviate some of South Africa’s disease burden and cause improvements in health care outcomes. Although some feasibility studies have shown the potentials of mHealth, there is a paucity of literature establishing clear outcomes of mHealth interventions in South Africa. This study, therefore, is a systematic review of literature that was carried out to evaluate empirical evidence on the effect of mHealth interventions on health outcomes in South Africa. Academic databases such as PubMed, ScienceDirect, EBSCOhost, and Scopus were searched for empirical studies relating to mHealth interventions in South Africa carried out between 2011 and March 2016. The search, after the screening, yielded 40 papers, of which six randomized controlled studies were eligible for review by the PRISMA guideline. Findings revealed that mHealth interventions using mobile phones and text messages had been targeted at improving treatment adherence and eliciting behavioral actions in patients. However, while mHealth portends the potential to improve health outcomes and possibly transform the health system, there was no sufficient evidence to confirm the effect of the mHealth interventions on improved health outcomes. The study concludes that there is a need for more intervention studies to show evidence of the impact of mHealth interventions on health outcomes and health care delivery processes in South Africa.