Managing Diabetes Using Mobiab: Long Term Case Study of the Impact of a Mobile App on Self-Management
ABSTRACT
Background:
This paper describes the development of a mobile app for diabetes mellitus control and self-management and presents the results of long-term usage of this system in the Czech Republic. Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease affecting large numbers of people worldwide and this number is continuously increasing. There is big potential to increase adherence to self-management of diabetes mellitus with the use of smartphones and digital therapeutics interventions.
Objective:
This study aims to describe the process of development of a mobile app, called Mobiab, for diabetes mellitus control and to find out how individual features are used and how the whole system benefits its long-term users. Using at least one year of daily records from patients, we analyzed the impact of the app on the self-management of diabetes mellitus.
Methods:
We have developed a mobile app that works as an alternative form to the classic paper diary. The development was based on cooperation with both clinicians and patients. The app consists of independent individual modules. Therefore, the user has the possibility to use only selected features that they find useful. Mobiab was available free-of-charge on Google Play Store from the middle of 2014 until 2019. No targeted recruitment was performed to attract users.
Results:
More than 500 users from the Czech Republic downloaded and signed up for the mobile app. About 80% of the users used Mobiab for less than 1 week. The rest of the users used it for a longer time; however, 8 of the users produced data that were suitable for long-term analysis. Additionally, one of the 8 users provided us with his medical records, which were compared with the data that was gathered, and the improvement in his results was consistent with the way in which the mobile app was used.
Conclusions:
The results of this study showed that the usability of a diabetes mellitus-centered self-management smartphone mobile app and server-based systems could be satisfactory and promising. Nonetheless, some better ways of motivating the participation of diabetes patients in self-management are needed. Further studies involving a larger number of patients are warranted in order to assess the effect on long-term diabetes control.
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