If you or someone you love has asthma, you know how hard it can be to keep it under control. This review of 39 trials looked at how telemedicine strategies help adults manage their asthma. The main finding is that combined telemedicine approaches, like education and monitoring, significantly improve asthma control compared to usual care. Specific strategies that worked well included tele-education and tele-monitoring. The review also found that these combined strategies improved quality of life. However, other approaches like case management, consultation, or reminders did not show a significant benefit. The studies involved adults with asthma, but the research has limitations. The interventions varied a lot between studies, and reporting on some outcomes was limited. Safety data was not reported. Because of these gaps, the findings suggest telemedicine can help, but more research is needed before it's widely used in clinics.
Telemedicine strategies improve asthma control and quality of life in adultsTelemedicine strategies improve asthma control for adults
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Key Takeaway
Consider telemedicine strategies for asthma control, but note heterogeneity and need for further research.
A network meta-analysis evaluated various telemedicine strategies for managing bronchial asthma in adults. The analysis compared case management, consultation, education, monitoring, reminding, or combined approaches against usual care. The primary outcome was asthma control, with secondary outcomes including quality of life and medication adherence.
The authors found that combined telemedicine strategies, tele-education, and tele-monitoring significantly improved asthma control compared to usual care. Case management, consultation, and reminder strategies did not show a significant benefit. A significant improvement in quality of life was also observed with combined strategies.
Key limitations noted by the authors include heterogeneity in intervention design and limited reporting across outcomes. The analysis was based on a synthesis of existing trials, and the certainty of evidence may be affected by these factors.
Clinical relevance is restrained; the authors emphasize the need for further research before widespread application. Practitioners should interpret these qualitative findings cautiously, recognizing that specific implementation details and patient selection may influence outcomes.
What this means for you:
Telemedicine education and monitoring can help adults control asthma, but not all approaches work equally well. More on Asthma
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View Original Abstract ↓
OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to synthesize existing evidence comparing telemedicine with usual care and to examine the relative effectiveness of different telemedicine strategies in the management of asthma among adults.
METHODS: A systematic search of MEDLINE/PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and Scopus identified randomized clinical trials published from inception until March 16, 2025. Telemedicine interventions were categorized as case management, consultation, education, monitoring, reminding, or combined approaches. Outcomes included asthma control, quality of life (QoL), and medication adherence. Results were synthesized using network meta-analysis and expressed as standardized mean differences (SMDs) or risk ratios (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs).
RESULTS: Thirty-nine trials were included. Compared to usual care, asthma control improved significantly with combined strategies ( = 14; SMD:-0.55; 95%CI:-0.85, -0.25; < 0.001), tele-education ( = 3; SMD:-0.62; 95%CI:-1.21, -0.02; = 0.042), and tele-monitoring ( = 3; SMD:-1.20; 95%CI:-1.97, -0.42; = 0.003). No significant benefit was found for case management, consultation, or reminder strategies. Based on SUCRA rankings, tele-monitoring, tele-education, and combined approaches were most effective for asthma control. For QoL, combined strategies showed a significant benefit over usual care (SMD:0.32; 95%CI:0.02, 0.62; = 0.037). SUCRA rankings for QoL placed tele-education first, followed by tele-monitoring and combined strategies.
CONCLUSION: Telemedicine strategies, particularly monitoring, education, and combined approaches, improve asthma control and QoL in adults. However, heterogeneity in intervention design and limited reporting across outcomes suggest cautious interpretation and the need for further research before widespread clinical application.
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