Determining minimum set of features for diabetes mobile apps

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.

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.

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).

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.