Effectiveness of mHealth interventions for improving health attendance: an umbrella review protocol.

Abstract

The objective of this umbrella review is to assess the effectiveness of mobile health (mHealth) interventions for improving health care attendance. Health attendance is a critical part of health service delivery and is considered a behavior influenced by personal characteristics, service availability, nature of the treatment and consultation, and social determinants. Various interventions are available to foster good health attendance behavior, and mHealth interventions are one of the common go-to solutions; however, there is ambiguity regarding their effectiveness. Systematic reviews, with or without meta-analysis, that specifically examine the impact of mHealth interventions on health care attendance will be considered. The review will not be restricted to any particular disease, health problem, stream, or system of care, nor will it be limited by population characteristics (eg, age, gender, socio-economic status) or context (setting can be at any level of care). The JBI methodology for umbrella reviews will be followed, and MEDLINE (Ovid), Scopus, CINAHL, Cochrane Central, and JBI Evidence Synthesis will be searched for sources of evidence. Unpublished and gray literature sources, such as ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, OAIster, and Google Scholar, will also be searched. The review will be limited to English-language articles published from the inception of the databases to the present. Two independent reviewers will perform title, abstract, and full-text screening, while a customized data extraction form will be used for data extraction. The JBI critical appraisal checklist for systematic reviews and research syntheses will be applied. Certainty of evidence for health attendance outcomes will be assessed following GRADE approach. PROSPERO CRD42023405677.