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Determining minimum set of features for diabetes mobile apps

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Abstract

Purpose

Interest in mobile health applications (apps) for diabetes self-care is growing. Mobile health is a promising new treatment modality for diabetes, though few smartphone apps have been designed based on a proper study and prioritization. The aim of this study was to determine a minimum set of features for diabetes mobile apps.

Methods

This study was conducted in three steps: 1.A review of the literature to collect all available features, 2. Assessing the validity of suggested features by Content Validity Index (CVI) and Content Validity Ratio (CVR), 3. Examining the importance of features by Friedman test.

Results

We retrieved all features of available mobile apps for type 2 diabetes, which are suggested and discussed in literature and compiled as a single list comprising of 33 features. Then, a survey of expert’s opinion produced a set of 23 final minimum features which includes all types of tracking, mealtime tagging, food database, diet management, educational materials, healthy coping, reducing risks, problem solving, Email, color coding, alerts, reminder, target range setting, trend chart view, logbook view, numerical indicators view, customizable theme, preset notes, and custom notes. According to the mean rank which indicates the priority of each feature, the most important one was blood glucose tracking (with 16.71 mean rank) and the least important feature was the numerical indicators like such as standard deviation or average (with 6.50 mean rank).

Conclusions

The present study is the first step towards the development of our mobile apps for people with type II diabetes, and highest the essential features that are required for an optimal self-care comprehensively.

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Acknowledgments

This study is a part of a Ph.D. dissertation financially supported by Tehran University of Medical Sciences (Grant: # 37529-97-01-31). We appreciate the contributions of all members of the Board of Health Informatics, Adult Endocrinologist, Health Education and Promotion which commented on our questionnaire form.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health Information Management, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Floor 3, No. 17, Faredanesh Alley, Ghods St, Tehran, Iran

    Raheleh Salari, Sharareh R. Niakan Kalhori & Marjan Ghazisaeedi

  2. Australian e-Health Research Centre, CSIRO, Brisbane, Australia

    Farhad Fatehi

  3. Centre for Online Health, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia

    Farhad Fatehi

  4. Department of Health Education and Health Promotion, School of Public Health, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran

    Mahin Nazari

Authors
  1. Raheleh Salari
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  2. Sharareh R. Niakan Kalhori
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  3. Farhad Fatehi
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  4. Marjan Ghazisaeedi
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  5. Mahin Nazari
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Contributions

Conception and design: Raheleh Salari, Sharareh R. Niakan Kalhori, Marjan Ghazisaeedi. Provision of study material or patients: Raheleh Salari, Sharareh R. Niakan Kalhori, Marjan Ghazisaeedi. Collection and assembly of data: Raheleh Salari, Sharareh R. Niakan Kalhori. Data analysis and interpretation: Raheleh Salari, Sharareh R. Niakan Kalhori. Manuscript writing: All authors. Final approval of manuscript: All authors.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marjan Ghazisaeedi.

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Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Limitation

The number of specialists filling out the questionnaire was less than expected. Due to the widespread geographical dispersion, there was no possibility to deliver this form in paper in person for all of them. Therefore the questionnaire form emeiled in electronic form. Inaccessibility to the full text of some articles were another limitation in this study.

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Salari, R., Niakan Kalhori, S.R., Fatehi, F. et al. Determining minimum set of features for diabetes mobile apps. J Diabetes Metab Disord 18, 333–340 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40200-019-00417-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40200-019-00417-y

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