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Table 4 Summary of selected outcomes by study design

From: The effect of mobile applications for improving adherence in cardiac rehabilitation: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Author

Quasi-experimental studies

 

Numbers of studies that assessed this

Randomized controlled trial

Controlled before-after study

Uncontrolled before-after study

Outcome

Outcome

Study

Effect

Study

Effect

Study

Effect

CR adherence

7

Rosario et al. 2018 [25]

+++

Widmer et al. 2015 [28]

–

Forman et al. 2014 [22]

∫

Skobel et al. 2017 [26]

+

Harzand et al. 2018 [23]

∫

Varnfield et al. 2014 [27]

+++

Laustsen et al. 2018 [24]

∫

Widmer et al. 2017 [29]

++

Exercise capacity

7

Rosario et al. 2018 [25]

^

Widmer et al. 2015 [28]

+++

Harzand et al. 2018 [23]

+++

Skobel et al. 2017 [26]

+++

Laustsen et al. 2018 [24]

+++

Varnfield et al. 2014 [27]

+

Widmer et al. 2017 [29]

^

Mental health

5

Rosario et al. 2018 [25]

–

Widmer et al. 2015 [28]

+++

Skobel et al. 2017 [26]

–

Varnfield et al. 2014 [27]

+++

Widmer et al. 2017 [29]

++

QoL

3

Skobel et al. 2017 [26]

–

Widmer et al. 2015 [28]

+++

Laustsen et al. 2018 [24]

+++

Varnfield et al. 2014 [27]

+++

Widmer et al. 2017 [29]

+++

  1. Key: QoL: Quality of Life; CR: Cardiac Rehabilitation
  2. +++: statistically significant effect; ++: greater improvement in intervention group than control but between group difference not significant; +: significant improvement in both groups but between group difference not reported or not significant; −: no reported change between treatment groups; ^: within-group improvement not significant; ∫: adherence improvement data from participant survey