Telemedical strategies for the improvement of secondary prevention in patients with cerebrovascular events-A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background Data from European countries consistently show that guideline-conform secondary prevention after stroke/transient ischemic attack is being realized in only 50-80% of patients. Use of telemedicine to support long-term secondary prevention has been effective in other cardiovascular diseases. Aims We reviewed current evidence for telemedical-supported strategies for the improvement of secondary prevention after stroke/transient ischemic attack. A systematic review was performed in accordance with the PRISMA statement searching MEDLINE, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and reference lists of articles published until 18 May 2016. Randomized controlled trials and observational studies were included if they analyzed the effect of a telemedical strategy for supporting secondary prevention after stroke/transient ischemic attack compared to usual care and reported primary (behavior according to guidelines, e.g., medication adherence) or surrogate outcomes (consequences of primary outcome, e.g., blood pressure). Summary of review The review included 13 of 100 identified studies involving 2672 patients. Telemedical support mainly comprised telephone interventions, predominantly done by nurses. Outcomes were heterogeneous: medication adherence did not differ in one randomized controlled trial (p = 0.089). Mortality was reported in one study and was significantly (p < 0.001) higher in patients non-participating in a web-based intervention. Four studies assessed blood pressure in a comparable way that allowed calculation of a meta-analysis. In that, telemedical intervention had a significant blood-pressure lowering effect compared to the control group (mean difference -6.14 (95% confidence interval -10.41, -1.87), p = 0.005). Conclusions Telemedical-supported secondary prevention in cerebrovascular diseases might be effective but larger trials with standardized interventions and outcome measures including clinical endpoints are needed.