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Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth

Date Submitted: Jun 25, 2018
Open Peer Review Period: Jun 26, 2018 - Jul 19, 2018
Date Accepted: Sep 4, 2018
(closed for review but you can still tweet)

The final, peer-reviewed published version of this preprint can be found here:

Exploration of Users’ Perspectives and Needs and Design of a Type 1 Diabetes Management Mobile App: Mixed-Methods Study

Zhang Y, Li X, Luo S, Liu C, Liu F, Zhou Z

Exploration of Users’ Perspectives and Needs and Design of a Type 1 Diabetes Management Mobile App: Mixed-Methods Study

JMIR Mhealth Uhealth 2018;6(9):e11400

DOI: 10.2196/11400

PMID: 30249580

PMCID: 6231832

Exploration of Users’ Perspectives and Needs and Design of a Type 1 Diabetes Management Mobile App: Mixed-Methods Study

  • Yiyu Zhang; 
  • Xia Li; 
  • Shuoming Luo; 
  • Chaoyuan Liu; 
  • Fang Liu; 
  • Zhiguang Zhou

ABSTRACT

Background:

With the popularity of mobile phones, mobile apps have great potential for the management of diabetes, but the effectiveness of current diabetes apps for type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is poor. No study has explored the reasons for this deficiency from the users’ perspective.

Objective:

The aims of this study were to explore the perspectives and needs of T1DM patients and diabetes experts concerning a diabetes app and to design a new T1DM management mobile app.

Methods:

A mixed-methods design combining quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews was used to explore users’ needs and perspectives. Experts were surveyed at 2 diabetes conferences using paper questionnaires. T1DM patients were surveyed using Sojump (Changsha ran Xing InfoTech Ltd) on a network. We conducted semistructured, in-depth interviews with adult T1DM patients or parents of child patients who had ever used diabetes apps. The interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and coded for theme identification.

Results:

The expert response rate was 63.5% (127/200). The respondents thought that the reasons for app invalidity were that patients did not continue using the app (76.4%, 97/127), little guidance was received from health care professionals (HCPs; 73.2%, 93/127), diabetes education knowledge was unsystematic (52.8%, 67/127), and the app functions were incomplete (44.1%, 56/127). A total of 245 T1DM patient questionnaires were collected, of which 21.2% (52/245) of the respondents had used diabetes apps. The reasons for their reluctance to use an app were limited time (39%, 20/52), complicated operations (25%, 13/52), uselessness (25%, 13/52), and cost (25%, 13/52). Both the experts and patients thought that the most important functions of the app were patient-doctor communication and the availability of a diabetes diary. Two themes that were useful for app design were identified from the interviews: (1) problems with patients’ diabetes self-management and (2) problems with current apps. In addition, needs and suggestions for a diabetes app were obtained. Patient-doctor communication, diabetes diary, diabetes education, and peer support were all considered important by the patients, which informed the development of a prototype multifunctional app.

Conclusions:

Patient-doctor communication is the most important function of a diabetes app. Apps should be integrated with HCPs rather than stand-alone. We advocate that doctors follow up with their patients using a diabetes app. Our user-centered method explored comprehensively and deeply why the effectiveness of current diabetes apps for T1DM was poor and what T1DM patients needed for a diabetes app and provided meaningful guidance for app design.


 Citation

Please cite as:

Zhang Y, Li X, Luo S, Liu C, Liu F, Zhou Z

Exploration of Users’ Perspectives and Needs and Design of a Type 1 Diabetes Management Mobile App: Mixed-Methods Study

JMIR Mhealth Uhealth 2018;6(9):e11400

DOI: 10.2196/11400

PMID: 30249580

PMCID: 6231832

Per the author's request the PDF is not available.

© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.