Mobile phone messaging for HIV & AIDS care

In an article published recently in the journal Psychology, Health & Medicine, Michelle Van Velthoven and colleagues from Imperial College London reviewed the scope, effectiveness, acceptability and feasibility of the use of mobile phone messaging for HIV infection prevention, treatment and care. They reported that the use of mobile phone messaging had been evaluated for HIV prevention, appointment reminders, HIV testing reminders, medication adherence and for communication between health workers. They also reported that of three randomized controlled trials assessing the use of short message service (SMS) to improve medication adherence, two showed positive results. Other interventional studies did not generally provide significant results. They concluded that there was limited evidence on the effectiveness of mobile phone messaging for HIV care and that this area of medical practice would benefit from additional high-quality studies.

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