Effect of telemedicine on the quality of life of people with heart disease: a systematic review.
Gabriele Cardoso Gonçalves Alves, Fabiola Leticia Damascena Amador, Vagner Rogério Dos Santos and 1 others
PMID 40667943WHAT IT FOUND
Remote self-management care did not clearly improve quality of life across 44 heart-disease trials. 20 studies showed gains, 19 showed improvement without a clear advantage, and 5 showed none.
No study found worse quality of life.
Key findings
01The review included 44 randomized trials in adults with heart disease, involving 12,732 patients.
02Quality of life results were mixed: 20 studies reported a statistically significant positive result in the telemedicine group, 19 reported improvement without a significant between-group difference, and 5 reported no impact.
03No study reported worsening quality of life with telemedicine, but the evidence was low to very low certainty and could not be pooled.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The studies used many different telemedicine tools, populations, follow-up lengths and quality-of-life questionnaires, so the results could not be combined reliably. Most studies had serious risk of bias, especially because patients, clinicians and outcome assessors were often not blinded. The interventions were multimodal, so it is not possible to tell whether monitoring, education, exercise, phone calls or apps produced any effect. The review included only randomized trials of adults with heart disease and excluded studies focused on other conditions, so it may not apply to younger patients or to different clinical settings. The review did not include gray literature, which could have changed the pattern of results. Quality of life was measured with different scales, and the review did not provide a comparable score.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that telemedicine reliably improves quality of life in heart disease. The review found inconsistent results, low to very low certainty, and could not combine the studies into an overall effect.