Telemedicine in Rural Zimbabwe: A Systematic Review of Chronic Disease Management Impact

Telemedicine has emerged as a promising solution for chronic disease management in rural areas where traditional healthcare delivery is often inadequate. A comprehensive search strategy was employed to identify relevant studies from databases such as PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library. Studies were screened based on predefined inclusion criteria related to the use of telemedicine for chronic disease management. Analysis revealed that telemedicine significantly improved patient adherence to treatment regimens (p < 0.05) with an average improvement rate of 34% in medication compliance among rural patients. Telemedicine appears to be a viable and effective tool for enhancing chronic disease management outcomes in rural Zimbabwe, particularly when integrated into existing healthcare infrastructure. Future research should explore the scalability and sustainability of telemedicine models within local contexts and evaluate long-term health impact. chronic diseases, rural health, telemedicine, patient adherence, Zimbabwe Treatment effect was estimated with $\text{logit}(p_i)=\beta_0+\beta^\top X_i$, and uncertainty reported using confidence-interval based inference.