Effects of Mobile Health-Based Personalized Disease Management Program Intervened By Health Professionals Through a Mobile App and Telephone Interviews in Reducing Medical Costs

OBJECTIVES: Lifestyle modification is considered effective in preventing the occurrence and progression of diseases, and lifestyle interventions considering individual health status are desirable. A disease management program provided by Prevent Inc. is a six-month intervention program in which health professionals provide personalized guidance on lifestyle improvement through a mobile app and telephone interviews to individuals with a history of hypertension, diabetes, or dyslipidemia to prevent progression and recurrence of the diseases. We evaluated the effect of this program in reducing healthcare costs.

METHODS: We obtained medical examination data before and after the program from the program participants with systolic blood pressure (SBP) ≥140 mmHg, hemoglobin (Hb) A1c ≥6.5%, or high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) <40 before the program, and evaluated changes in excess medical costs per person per month (PPPM). Excess medical costs represent the costs excess over the average medical costs for the same sex and age. To estimate the excess medical costs, we develop a model based on the models explaining the relationship between the excess medical costs and each medical examination data: BMI, SBP, HDL-C, HbA1c, and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), using data from insureds of health insurance societies.

RESULTS: We obtained the data from 1,703 participants. Average (standard deviation) values before and after the program were 27.5 (4.5) and 27.0 (4.3) kg/m² for BMI, 132.3 (12.9) and 129.7 (11.7) mmHg for SBP, 75.2 (11.0) and 74.3 (6.6) mL/min/1.73m² for eGFR, 6.98 (0.98) and 6.69 (0.85) % for HbA1c, 52.4 (12.9) and 55.2 (12.6) mg/dl for HDL-C, respectively. A reduction in excess medical costs was estimated to be 1,098 JPY PPPM (1 JPY = 0.0071 EUR), which is 9.1% of the average medical costs of all insureds.

CONCLUSIONS: A substantial effect was suggested for the personalized disease management program by health professionals in reducing medical costs.