JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic metabolic disorder marked by elevated blood glucose levels and has emerged as a global epidemic that needs management strategies for effective glycemic control through diet. In recent years, mobile applications have emerged as valuable tools for supporting self-management in chronic diseases, such as diabetes, particularly in the nutritional aspect of the disease. However, the quality, accuracy, and adherence of these applications to established dietary guidelines remain undiscovered and inconsistent.

Objective:

The study aims to evaluate the functionality and adherence to guidelines of digital nutrition management applications for diabetes, with a focus on dietary guidelines from the American Diabetes Association (ADA), World Health Organization (WHO), European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), and Canadian Diabetes Association (CDA).

Methods:

A mixed-methods approach was used, involving a systematic review of mobile applications from the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. A total of 24 applications were selected based on predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Applications were analyzed for their content and features using a compliance checklist derived from official dietary guidelines for diabetes. Additionally, the Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS) was used to evaluate application quality on engagement, functionality, aesthetics, and information.

Results:

Only two applications showed full compliance with the dietary guidelines, while most applications showed partial adherence. The MARS evaluation revealed significant variability in application quality, where only two applications had a mean score above 4.0. This shows major gaps in user engagement, functionality, educational content, and personalization.

Conclusions:

Even with the growing availability of nutrition management applications for diabetes, many lack full compliance with dietary guidelines and show room for improvement in their content quality. A collaboration between healthcare professionals, developers, and patients is essential for the future development of these tools to effectively support diabetes self-management.