JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Managing type 1 diabetes (T1D) in children/adolescents can be difficult for parents, healthcare professionals (HCPs), and even patients. Over the last few decades, although the main general advances in diabetes technology that improved the quality of services for people with diabetes were CGM, pumps, and closed loop, technological advances in mHealth are playing the same role.

Objective:

The aim of this research was to review articles to propose a categorization for design of mHealth coaching technologies for managing diabetes for adolescents/children with T1D.

Methods:

A PRISMA-based review method was used to provide a categorization that helps the designers create a new technology for managing T1D in adolescents/children. This research was performed using the PubMed, Web of Science, and Google Scholar databases.

Results:

By exploring 32 articles from 2012 to 2023, 33 unique projects and four main categories were identified: purpose, methodology, feature set, and target platform. Purpose was categorized into ten groups, and blood glucose overview (11 articles) was the most frequent one. Gamification was the most common methodology with occurrences in 10 projects. They were nine features identified and patients' education was the most frequent, occurring in 19 projects. The target platform includes three members, and mobile apps (26 apps) are the most common.

Conclusions:

Technology plays a crucial role in supporting children with diabetes. By reviewing papers, it was determined that the primary aim of the majority of projects was managing blood glucose with the use of gamification in the mobile app (Android or iOS). Mobile apps are the most common platform among adolescents. The most frequent features in the mobile app focus on patients' education about diabetes.