JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Background:

Prediabetic patients are at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Given that the prediabetes management intervention is mostly relay on self-management which typically occur outside healthcare settings. Mobile health technologies have the potential in reducing the burden of diabetes by supporting the self-management of prediabetic patients. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the constituents’ elements of successful Mobile Health intervention for prediabetic patients in King Saud University Medical City (KSUMC) hospitals in Saudi Arabia.

Objective:

Objective:

the objectives of this study were 1- to explore the perceived barriers and challenges of current prediabetes management interventions in KSUMC hospitals, and 2-to explore the possible factors that affect the uptake of mobile health (mHealth) applications by prediabetic patients in KSUMC hospitals, and 3-to elicit key intervention elements that deemed important by both healthcare providers and prediabetic patients in KSUMC hospitals, and finally 4- propose a patient-centred design features of mHealth intervention for prediabetic patients in KSUMC hospitals using the Centre for eHealth Research(CeHRes) roadmap.

Methods:

Methods:

A cross sectional quantitative design was used. This study has used the CeHRes roadmap as a guide. The first three phases from CeHRes roadmap were conducted; contextual enquiry, value specification, and design phase. The calculated sample size for the participants of our study were as follow: 38 healthcare providers working at the primary care departments at KSUMC, and 281 prediabetic patients who are Arabic-speakers, age group between 20 and 65, and receiving intervention for prediabetes were eligible for this study.

Results:

Results:

Physical activity and healthy diet plans were reported by healthcare providers to be the most impactful approach of the current prediabetes management intervention. While patient’s adherence to healthy diet and physical activity recommendations were also reported by health providers to be the most common barriers and challenges for the current intervention. Prediabetic patients’ insights and perceptions regarding the current intervention were explored. Healthy diet as well as physical activity plans were most common challenging aspect facing patients in the current intervention. 15% of patients use mHealth applications to manage their current status of health were 62.5% use various websites to search for health-related information. The proposed design of mHealth features were also evaluated and the results show great interest in self-management features such as steps count, list of healthy food options, and weight and body mass management features.

Conclusions:

Conclusion: This study was the first attempt of its kind in Saudi Arabia which aimed to explore the constituents’ elements of successful mHealth intervention for prediabetic patients in KSUMC hospitals. It concluded that the successful mHealth intervention elements for prediabetic patients should encompass key features such as; self-monitoring of diet, weight and physical activity, personalized health education messages, and access to evidence-based health information. The key features should also accompany with motivation elements and it should support Arabic language.