Diabetes Patients Request Ease-of-Use Among Mobile App Features

A study from the Regenstrief Institute indicates that despite low smartphone application use rates among diabetes patients, many people with the condition want features that make these apps easy to use, patient-friendly, and assist with insulin dosing.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that 37.3 million people in the US have diabetes, making up 11.3 percent of the population.

Along with the prevalence of this condition, the Regenstrief Institute noted that there are currently over 1,400 apps that aim to treat this condition. These tools, however, are not highly used, and getting patients to use them as frequently as needed is difficult.

To explore opinions of mobile apps among diabetes patients, researchers from the Regenstrief Institute, Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health, and Indiana University School of Medicine conducted a study involving 92 participants, 70 percent of whom had type 2 diabetes.

“Important questions that should be asked of all health apps, not just apps for diabetes, include, do they make the right calculations and do they make appropriate recommendations to patients?” said study co-author and Regenstrief Institute research scientist Titus Schleyer, PhD, in a press release. “In this study we went beyond these basic questions and looked at how patients interact with apps and investigated factors that influence user success.”

The study participant group comprised adults who took insulin for an average of 12 years. Common diabetes complications among this group included short-term memory loss, retinopathy, and mobility impairment.

When asked about the types of features that patients would like to see in diabetes self-management apps, recurring themes emerged. Participants note that efficiency and ease are important, along with uncomplicated and patient-friendly terminology.

They also value assistance with data monitoring and analytical insights surrounding blood glucose levels, which could guide behavior adjustments, like reconfiguring their insulin dosage. They noted that seeing when their blood glucose was trending high or low in relation to the time of day or week made them feel more autonomous in their diabetes self-management.

Patients further noted that clinicians having the ability to electronically receive and print patient reports would be valuable. This is because it provides clinicians with information on patient engagement and behaviors.

“In a future study we plan to learn more about diabetes patients and ways to use health information technology to help them live more successfully with their disease,” said study leader Helen Fu, PhD, a postdoctoral public and population health informatics research fellow at Regenstrief Institute and IU Fairbanks School of Public Health, in the press release. “We hope to find out which populations and subpopulations have the most trouble with disease management and to gain a better understanding of what well-designed tools might look like and share this information with clinicians and app developers.”

Prior research has indicated that apps can assist diabetes patients in managing symptoms.

A study from August 2022 found that despite there being room for potential improvement, an mHealth app was successful in treating short-term glycemic control and supporting care for patients with type 2 diabetes.

The study aimed to test a self-monitoring mobile app in treating the condition, using HbA1c levels as a main unit of measurement. Researchers conducted a 26-week randomized controlled trial that used EMR data.

With a study population of 269, researchers divided patients into three groups: usual care (UC), mobile diabetes self-care (MC), and MC with physician feedback (MPC). At the conclusion of the study, all three groups had similar decreases in HbA1c levels.