Development of "DiabetesSutra" a mobile application for lifestyle management of Type 2 Diabetes in India.

Background: Multiple mhealth (mobile health) interventions and mobile applications have been developed to support diabetes self-management. However, most of the apps are developed without the need for assessment and evaluation by experts in the field. This study aimed to design and develop a mobile application (app) supporting diabetes self-management for people with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2D) using a systematic approach.

Methods: In this study mixed method design was used to develop the mobile application. The mhealth intervention was designed and developed in five steps: i) Extensive literature search, ii) Needs assessment of patients with T2D with the help of healthcare providers and patients (Interviews with 15 healthcare providers like clinicians, dietitians, and diabetes educators, and 2 focus group discussions with patients) iii) Ideation and content development of app based on outcomes of needs assessment; iv) content validation (by 10 healthcare providers) and v) App development on a hybrid platform. Evaluation of the app by users i.e., type 2 diabetes patients was done using the users' Mobile App rating scale (uMARS). The app was evaluated by 40 patients and rated on the uMARS questionnaire.

Results: A patient-centric mobile app was developed for the nutritional management of diabetes with three modules: The patient module, the Evaluation module, and the Healthcare provider module. The patient module was the app that was provided to the patients with features like diet, physical activity, blood glucose log, education, etc., in addition to, a symptom checker, Stress meter blog, and FAQ. The evaluation module was integrated with the app it works when a user enters any log, it evaluates the entry against the standard cutoffs and flash prompts on the screen. The Healthcare provider module interacts with the server to provide them with patient data, comments, and feedback.

Conclusions: The users found the app to be satisfactory. Incorporating additional features to enhance the user interface and streamline navigation could potentially enhance user engagement, thereby aiding in the management of T2D.