Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Diabetes
Date Submitted: Apr 4, 2022
Open Peer Review Period: Apr 4, 2022 - May 30, 2022
Date Accepted: Feb 27, 2023
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited.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.
Integration of diabetics’ vision in the development process to improve self-management via diabetes apps: A qualitative study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Diabetes is a major global epidemic and a serious public health problem. Diabetes self-management of blood glucose levels is a 24/7 challenge for diabetics, which influences their quality of life. Apps can support diabetics with their self-management, but current apps do not meet up with diabetics needs and patient safety is not guaranteed. Moreover, there are still numerous hard- and software problems regarding diabetes apps and regulations and guidelines are required to regulate medical care via apps.
Objective:
The aim of this study is to contribute to the technology development process of diabetes apps by exploring individual perspectives on desired features and content of diabetes apps among diabetics.
Methods:
In a qualitative study, 24 semi-structured interviews with diabetes type 1 patients were conducted, among whom ten currently using an app. A vision assessment was performed to make diabetics visions about features and content of diabetes apps explicit.
Results:
According to diabetics, future apps should improve their sensor and app connectivity to avoid incorrect value display due to lack of sensor and app connectivity. Further, future apps should explicitly indicate that the displayed values are delayed. Additionally, personalized information was found to be lacking in apps. Therefore, AI should be integrated into future apps to predict blood glucose levels and provide personalized information to diabetics. To improve usability, future apps should include modes for beginners and experts. Respondents also missed communication and sharing options with peers and diabetologists. Future apps should therefore provide communication and information sharing options in the form of chat and forum functions. Lastly, it was noted that the alarm sounds of the apps attract too much attention by others, which, consequently, let diabetics feel uncomfortable.
Conclusions:
Diabetics have concrete ideas of features and content in apps to improve their quality of life and allow them to live as comfortable as possible, such as informative predictions through AI, improvements in signal loss and value delay through smartwatches, improved communication and information sharing capabilities, reliable information sources and a user-friendly and discreet messaging options through smartwatches. The vision assessment conducted is a first step towards creating a shared vision among all relevant stakeholders. In the future, guiding visions from all relevant stakeholders are needed to ensure an appropriate research and an adequate development process regarding diabetes apps.
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Copyright
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