TY - JOUR
T1 - Eliciting Requirements for a Diabetes Self-Management Application for Underserved Populations
T2 - A Multi-Stakeholder Analysis
AU - Bonet Olivencia, Samuel
AU - Rao, Arjun H.
AU - Smith, Alec
AU - Sasangohar, Farzan
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was funded partly by the Robert J. Kleberg and Helen C. Kleberg Foundation and the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1648451. We thank Jacob M. Kolman, MA, research associate at Texas A&M University and scientific writer at Houston Methodist, for critical review and editing.
Funding Information:
Funding: This research was funded partly by the Robert J. Kleberg and Helen C. Kleberg Foundation and the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1648451.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2021/12/23
Y1 - 2021/12/23
N2 - Medically underserved communities have limited access to effective disease management resources in the U.S. Mobile health applications (mHealth apps) offer patients a cost-effective way to monitor and self-manage their condition and to communicate with providers; however, current diabetes self-management apps have rarely included end-users from underserved communities in the design process. This research documents key stakeholder-driven design requirements for a diabetes self-management app for medically underserved patients. Semi-structured survey interviews were carried out on 97 patients with diabetes and 11 healthcare providers from medically underserved counties in South Texas, to elicit perspectives and preferences regarding a diabetes self-management app, and their beliefs regarding such an app's usage and utility. Patients emphasized the need for accessible educational content and for quick access to guidance on regulating blood sugar, diet, and exercise and physical activity using multimedia rather than textual forms. Healthcare providers indicated that glucose monitoring, educational content, and the graphical visualization of diabetes data were among the top-rated app features. These findings suggest that specific design requirements for the underserved can improve the adoption, usability, and sustainability of such interventions. Designers should consider health literacy and numeracy, linguistic barriers, data visualization, data entry complexity, and information exchange capabilities.
AB - Medically underserved communities have limited access to effective disease management resources in the U.S. Mobile health applications (mHealth apps) offer patients a cost-effective way to monitor and self-manage their condition and to communicate with providers; however, current diabetes self-management apps have rarely included end-users from underserved communities in the design process. This research documents key stakeholder-driven design requirements for a diabetes self-management app for medically underserved patients. Semi-structured survey interviews were carried out on 97 patients with diabetes and 11 healthcare providers from medically underserved counties in South Texas, to elicit perspectives and preferences regarding a diabetes self-management app, and their beliefs regarding such an app's usage and utility. Patients emphasized the need for accessible educational content and for quick access to guidance on regulating blood sugar, diet, and exercise and physical activity using multimedia rather than textual forms. Healthcare providers indicated that glucose monitoring, educational content, and the graphical visualization of diabetes data were among the top-rated app features. These findings suggest that specific design requirements for the underserved can improve the adoption, usability, and sustainability of such interventions. Designers should consider health literacy and numeracy, linguistic barriers, data visualization, data entry complexity, and information exchange capabilities.
KW - blood glucose self-monitoring
KW - diabetes mellitus
KW - disease management
KW - health literacy
KW - medically underserved area
KW - mobile applications
KW - self-management
KW - telemedicine
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U2 - 10.3390/ijerph19010127
DO - 10.3390/ijerph19010127
M3 - Article
C2 - 35010385
AN - SCOPUS:85123747078
SN - 1661-7827
VL - 19
JO - International journal of environmental research and public health
JF - International journal of environmental research and public health
IS - 1
ER -