Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Human Factors
Date Submitted: Feb 8, 2022
Date Accepted: Sep 10, 2022
Behavior Change Apps for Gestational Diabetes Management: Design and evaluation of desirable features
ABSTRACT
Background:
Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) has considerable and increasing health effects as it raises both the mother’s and offspring’s risk for short- and long-term health problems. GDM can usually be treated with a healthier lifestyle, such as appropriate dietary modifications and engaging in sufficient physical activity. While telemedicine interventions providing weekly or more frequent feedback from healthcare professionals have shown the potential to improve glycemic control among women with GDM, apps without extensive input from healthcare professionals are limited and have not shown to be effective. Different features in personalization and support have been proposed to increase efficacy of GDM app but knowledge on how these features should be designed are lacking.
Objective:
The aim of this study was to investigate how GDM apps should be designed taking into account the desirable features based on the previous literature.
Methods:
We designed an interactive GDM prototype app, which provided example implementations of the desirable features, such as providing automatic and personalized suggestions and social support through the app. Women with GDM explored the prototype and gave feedback in semi-structured interviews.
Results:
We identified that self-tracking data in GDM apps should be extended with written feedback, habits and goals should be highly customizable to be useful, the app should have different functions to provide social support, and healthcare professionals should be notified through the app if something unusual occurs. In addition, we found two additional themes. First, basic functionalities that are fast to learn by women with GDM who have recently received the diagnosis should be provided but there should be also deeper features to maintain interest for women with GDM at the later stage of pregnancy. Second, as women with GDM may have feelings of guilt, the app should have a tolerance and supporting approach for unfavorable behavior.
Conclusions:
The feedback on the GDM prototype app supported the need for desirable features and provided new insights on how the features should be incorporated into GDM apps. We expect that following the proposed designs and feedback will increase the efficacy of GDM self-management apps. Clinical Trial: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03941652
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© 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.