Adoption of Mobile Health for Hypertension Management in Uganda A Review

Katu Amina H.

School of Natural and Applied Sciences Kampala International Uganda

                                                                                         ABSTRACT
Hypertension is an increasingly prevalent and underdiagnosed non-communicable disease (NCD) in Uganda that contributes substantially to cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Mobile health (mHealth), the use of mobile phones and related digital technologies to deliver health services and information, has emerged as a promising strategy to improve hypertension prevention, detection, treatment adherence, and follow-up in low-resource settings. This review synthesizes recent evidence on the burden of hypertension in Uganda; describes mHealth modalities used for hypertension (SMS, smartphone apps, telehealth, CHW-facilitated platforms, mobile money for medication access); evaluates effectiveness, acceptability, feasibility, implementation barriers, and enablers; and sets out priorities for research and scale-up. Evidence from Uganda and the wider sub-Saharan African (SSA) region shows high hypertension prevalence and low awareness/control, good acceptability of low-complexity mHealth (e.g., SMS, simple apps), encouraging outcomes from CHW-facilitated telehealth and pilot app projects, but persistent barriers including affordability, inconsistent connectivity, low digital literacy, fragmented service integration, and supply-chain/medication access. To translate pilot successes into population health impact, Uganda needs implementation research addressing cost-effectiveness, interoperability with health systems, human-centered design for low-literacy users, sustainable financing (including use of mobile money), and policy/regulatory frameworks that secure data privacy and service quality.

Keywords: Mobile health (mHealth), Hypertension management, Uganda, Community health workers (CHWs), Telehealth.

CITE AS: Katu Amina H. (2026). Adoption of Mobile Health for Hypertension Management in Uganda A Review. Research Output Journal of Engineering and Scientific Research 5(1): 92-97.
https://doi.org/10.59298/ROJESR/2026/5.19297