mHealth impact on secondary stroke prevention: a scoping review of randomized controlled trials among stroke survivors between 2010-2020

Background: A fundamental gap between clinical prevention and self-management awareness heightens the risk for stroke recurrence in approximately one-fourth of the highest risk stroke survivors annually. Secondary stroke prevention has the potential to be promoted by mobile health (mHealth) applications for effective real-world adoption of vascular risk factor mitigation. This scoping review aims to evaluate the impact of mHealth interventions and their effectiveness to reduce recurrent stroke rates among stroke survivors in randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Methods: Scoping review in Ovid Medline, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, and Scopus for RCT literature employing mHealth among stroke populations published in English from 2010 to November 19, 2020. Small or pilot studies that included randomized design were included. Results: A total of 352 abstracts met inclusion criteria; 31 full-text articles were assessed and 18 unique RCTs involving 1,453 patients ultimately fulfilled criteria. Twelve of 18 met the pre-defined primary outcome measure, including 2 studies evaluating feasibility. Eight of 18 only addressed recovery from index stroke deficits. Most outcomes focused on self-reported functional status, mood, quality of life or compliance with intervention; primary outcome was an objective metric in 4/18 (blood pressure readings, step number, obstructive sleep apnea support compliance). Intervention duration 2-12 months, with a median 9 weeks. Conclusions: No high-quality evidence supporting mHealth applications to reduce recurrent stroke was found in this scoping review. Overall, most studies were relatively small, heterogenous, and employed subjective primary outcome measures. mHealth's potential as an effective tool for stroke stakeholders to reduce recurrent stroke rates has not been sufficiently demonstrated in this review. Future randomized studies are needed that explicitly evaluate stroke recurrence rate.