43 - Mobile App_Frontiers.pdf (929.05 kB)
Content analysis of mobile health applications on diabetes mellitus
journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-19, 13:55 authored by Izahar, S, Lean, QY, Hameed, MA, Murugiah, MK, Rahul PatelRahul Patel, Al-Worafi, YM, Wong, TW, Ming, LCDiabetes self-management offers an opportunity to patients to be actively involved in managing their conditions and modifying lifestyle behaviors to attain positive health outcomes. With the unprecedented growth of mobile technology, smartphone plays a role in supporting diabetes self-management. Nonetheless, selecting appropriate mobile applications (apps) is challenging for patients. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate and compare the contents and features of mobile medical apps for diabetes self-management. Of 346 commercial apps, 16 (16%) and 19 (7.72%) of the diabetes apps found in Apple and Google Play stores, respectively, were included based on the selection criteria and individually scored for the availability of 8 main features of diabetes self-management. The apps supported self-management by offering features such as free installation, less than 50 MB space used, offline use, automated data entry, data export and sharing, educational tool, and advice. Of the 8 evaluated features, only 11 (31.4%) apps had a score of 5 whereas 7 (20%) apps scored the lowest, with a score of 3. The majority of apps were free, required no Internet connectivity to use and were less than 50 MB in size. Our findings showed that the design of diabetes mobile apps focused on reporting and setting reminders, rather than providing personalized education or therapeutic support. In the future, the design of apps could be improved to integrate patients’ needs, usability for disease management, and lifestyle modifications.
History
Publication title
Frontiers in EndocrinologyVolume
8Article number
318Number
318Pagination
1-8ISSN
1664-2392Department/School
School of Pharmacy and PharmacologyPublisher
Frontiers Research FoundationPlace of publication
SwitzerlandRights statement
Copyright 2017 The Authors Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Repository Status
- Open