SynthesisThe European respiratory journal2018
The impact of digital health technologies on tuberculosis treatment: a systematic review.
Synthesis in The European respiratory journal, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 2 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 103 papers, 12 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
DOT Selfie: A Mobile Health Intervention With Transfer of Social Bundle Incentives to Increase Treatment Adherence in Tuberculosis Patients in Uganda: A Randomized Control Trial.
TB Treatment Support Tools: Refinement and Evaluation of an Interactive Mobile App and Direct Adherence Monitoring on TB Treatment Outcomes
Who cites it
103 citing papers in PubMed, 12 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 197 citations in OpenAlex.
- Digital health implementation research across selected African countries: a bibliometric analysis of maternal health and infectious diseases with observations on precision medicine representation (2015-2025).Frontiers in digital health · 2026Pooled it
- The impact of digital adherence technologies on treatment outcomes, adherence, and patient-reported outcomes in tuberculosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Pooled it
- Cost and cost-effectiveness of digital technologies for support of tuberculosis treatment adherence: a systematic review.BMJ global health · 2024Pooled it
- The performance of digital technologies for measuring tuberculosis medication adherence: a systematic review.BMJ global health · 2024Pooled it
- Quantifying non-adherence to anti-tuberculosis treatment due to early discontinuation: a systematic literature review of timings to loss to follow-up.BMJ open respiratory research · 2024Pooled it
- Improving cascade outcomes for active TB: A global systematic review and meta-analysis of TB interventions.PLoS medicine · 2023Pooled it
- eHealth in TB clinical management.The international journal of tuberculosis and lung disease : the official journal of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease · 2022Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Does phone messaging improves tuberculosis treatment success? A systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC infectious diseases · 2020Pooled it
- Medication adherence interventions and outcomes: an overview of systematic reviews.European journal of hospital pharmacy : science and practice · 2019Pooled it
- Toward Developing a Standardized Core Set of Outcome Measures in Mobile Health Interventions for Tuberculosis Management: Systematic Review.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2019Pooled it
- Patient support for tuberculosis patients in low-incidence countries: A systematic review.PloS one · 2018Pooled it
- Trial
- In-Person vs Electronic Directly Observed Therapy for Tuberculosis Treatment Adherence: A Randomized Noninferiority Trial.JAMA network open · 2022Trial
- A randomised controlled trial to evaluate a medication monitoring system for TB treatment.The international journal of tuberculosis and lung disease : the official journal of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease · 2022Trial
- Insights from participant engagement with the tuberculosis treatment support tools intervention: Thematic analysis of interactive messages to guide refinement to better meet end user needs.International journal of medical informatics · 2021Trial
- Cost-effectiveness of artificial intelligence monitoring for active tuberculosis treatment: A modeling study.PloS one · 2021Trial
- Implementing mHealth Interventions in a Resource-Constrained Setting: Case Study From Uganda.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2020Trial
- SMS nudges as a tool to reduce tuberculosis treatment delay and pretreatment loss to follow-up. A randomized controlled trial.PloS one · 2019Trial
- A patient-level pooled analysis of treatment-shortening regimens for drug-susceptible pulmonary tuberculosis.Nature medicine · 2018Trial
43 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Digital technologies are increasingly harnessed to support treatment of persons with tuberculosis (TB). Since in-person directly observed treatment (DOT) can be resource intensive and challenging to implement, these technologies may have the potential to improve adherence and clinical outcomes. We reviewed the effect of these technologies on TB treatment adherence and patient outcomes.We searched several bibliographical databases for studies reporting the effect of digital interventions, including short message service (SMS), video-observed therapy (VOT) and medication monitors (MMs), to support treatment for active TB. Only studies with a control group and which reported effect estimates were included.Four trials showed no statistically significant effect on treatment completion when SMS was added to standard care. Two observational studies of VOT reported comparable treatment completion rates when compared with in-person DOT. MMs increased the probability of cure (RR 2.3, 95% CI 1.6-3.4) in one observational study, and one trial reported a statistically significant reduction in missed treatment doses relative to standard care (adjusted means ratio 0.58, 95% CI 0.42-0.79).Evidence of the effect of digital technologies to improve TB care remains limited. More studies of better quality are needed to determine how such technologies can enhance programme performance.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.