Digital Intervention to Improve Oral Chemotherapy Adherence: Systematic Review

Background: Oral chemotherapy had significantly increased last decades. As home-based administration, it is facing a challenge to ensure patient medication adherence. A digital intervention provides innovative solutions to address the adherence barrier. Therefore, we propose systematically reviewing digital interventions designed to enhance adherence among cancer patients taking oral chemotherapy. Methods: We identified articles in PubMed, Scopus, Google scholar from 2010 to 2021. We included fulltext original articles published in English. We followed The Preferred Reporting Results of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. Two researchers independently extracted data relevant to the inclusion criteria. Results: We identified a total of 831 articles. The literature search produced six eligible articles. Types of digital interventions used include mobile apps, mobile health text messages, and mobile games. Features of most interventions include medication reminders, symptom reporting and adherence, and patient education. Treatment adherence rate, symptom burden, quality of life were the most common outcome measures. It provides benefits in these parameters in most studies. Conclusions: Digital interventions present a new approach to improve treatment adherence in the short term in cancer patients undergoing oral chemotherapy. Further studies may need to be investigated to assess the intervention's long-term efficacy.