Bonet Olivencia, S.; Rao, A.H.; Smith, A.; Sasangohar, F. Eliciting Requirements for a Diabetes Self-Management Application for Underserved Populations: A Multi-Stakeholder Analysis. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health2022, 19, 127.
Bonet Olivencia, S.; Rao, A.H.; Smith, A.; Sasangohar, F. Eliciting Requirements for a Diabetes Self-Management Application for Underserved Populations: A Multi-Stakeholder Analysis. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 127.
Bonet Olivencia, S.; Rao, A.H.; Smith, A.; Sasangohar, F. Eliciting Requirements for a Diabetes Self-Management Application for Underserved Populations: A Multi-Stakeholder Analysis. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health2022, 19, 127.
Bonet Olivencia, S.; Rao, A.H.; Smith, A.; Sasangohar, F. Eliciting Requirements for a Diabetes Self-Management Application for Underserved Populations: A Multi-Stakeholder Analysis. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 127.
Abstract
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 with 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 form. Healthcare providers indicated that glucose monitoring, educational content, and graphical visualization of diabetes data were among the top-rated app features. These findings suggest that specific design requirements for the underserved may 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.
Keywords
Diabetes mellitus; self-management; blood glucose self-monitoring; mobile applications; medically underserved area; health literacy; telemedicine; disease management
Subject
Engineering, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
