Previously submitted to: JMIR mHealth and uHealth (no longer under consideration since Nov 19, 2021)
Date Submitted: Jul 9, 2020
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Patient and health professional’s perception of available mobile applications (app) for managing gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM)
ABSTRACT
Background:
Gestational diabetes mellites (GDM) is a type of diabetes that commonly occur in the second part of the pregnancy and usually goes away once the baby is born. Maternal risk associated with GDM are pre-eclampsia, caesarean delivery, perineal trauma, post-partum haemorrhage and delayed breastfeeding. Possible neonatal risk also included macrosomia growth restriction, birth injuries, respiratory distress, hypoglycaemia and jaundice. Dietary advice and blood glucose monitoring and glucose-lowering therapy should be offered to diagnosed patients. The increasing ownership of mobile phones and advances in mobile applications (apps) provide an innovative personalised management among women with GDM. Numerous mobile phone apps are available for women to gain access via app stores, however to our knowledge, no review has documented both health professional and patient’s perception of those apps. The use of telemedicine was convincingly shown to result in better glucose control, but reduced costs to the health system or patients, and patient or health-carer acceptability were not clearly demonstrated due to limited data.
Objective:
This review was aimed to discover patient and health professional’s perception of mobile apps available for managing GDM via both app stores and 5 relevant electronic databases.
Methods:
Two separate searches were conducted, i.e. app stores (iTunes and Google Play store), electronic databases CINAHL, Cochrane library, Medline, PsycINFO and PubMed using major key words: patient, health professional, perception, mobile application and gestational diabetes.
Results:
Seven studies were included in the final analysis. We categorised articles under two themes: 1) patient’s experiences of available mobile apps focused on GDM and 2) health professional’s feedback on mobile apps focused on GDM. Only two studies focused on both patient and health professional’s perception on mobile apps to manage GDM.
Conclusions:
There is a limited body of research on mobile apps in relation to both patient and health professional’s perception of GDM management. Mobile apps can be an effective way to manage GDM, but apps should not be restricted to collecting and providing information only. Collected data should be shared as a communication platform for both patients and health professional to be utilised as an active tool to update GDM treatment plans. Clinical Trial: N/A
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