Currently submitted to: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Jan 9, 2026
Open Peer Review Period: Jan 19, 2026 - Mar 16, 2026
(currently open for review)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited.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.
Evaluating the Reach of HelloType1- A Digital Innovative Educational Platform in Regional Languages for Diabetes Education in Southeast Asia
ABSTRACT
Background:
Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Action4Diabetes (A4D), a non-profit organisation collaborating with local healthcare professionals across Southeast Asia (SEA), developed HelloType1 a digital educational platform for Type 1 diabetes (T1D) in regional languages. Launched sequentially in Cambodia (2021), Vietnam (2022), Thailand (2022), and Malaysia (2023) through Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs), the digital platform aimed to improve diabetes awareness, education, and access to credible local-language resources.
Objective:
This study aims to evaluate the usability, reach and online engagement of HelloType1 from 2021 to 2024.
Methods:
Website traffic data from Google Analytics (GA4) and Facebook metrics were analysed to assess user growth, traffic sources, and engagement trends across countries.
Results:
Total users increased by 645% between 2021 and 2022 and a further 31% between 2022 and 2023. By 2024, 78% of visits originated from search engines, 13% from social media, and 9% from direct access. Pageviews rose from 4,644 (2021) to 82,689 (2024). Facebook followers grew from 940 to 4,553, with engagement rates increasing from 8% (2022) to 29% (2024). Cambodia achieved the highest reach, while Vietnam showed strong engagement among younger female caregivers.
Conclusions:
HelloType1 demonstrates a scalable, low-cost digital model for delivering culturally adapted T1D education in resource-limited SEA settings. Clinical Trial: NA
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.