Novel Interventions for HIV Self-management in African American Women: A Systematic Review of mHealth Interventions

The purpose of this systematic review was to assess the quality of interventions using mobile health (mHealth) technology being developed for and trialed with HIV-infected African American (AA) women. We aimed to assess rigor and to ascertain if these interventions have been expanded to include the broad domain of self-management. After an extensive search using the PRISMA approach and reviewing 450 records (411 published studies and 39 ongoing trials at clinicaltrials.gov), we found little completed research that tested mHealth HIV self-management interventions for AA women. At clinicaltrials.gov, we found several mHealth HIV intervention studies designed for women in general, forecasting a promising future. However, most studies were exploratory in nature and focused on a single narrow outcome, such as medication adherence. Given that cultural adaptation is the key to successfully implementing any effective self-management intervention, culturally relevant, gender-specific mHealth interventions focusing on HIV-infected AA women are warranted for the future.