Table 1.
Characteristics of the studies evaluating mobile apps for type 1 diabetes mellitus management and empowerment.
| Characteristics | Castensøe-Seidenfaden [12] | Cafazzo [13] | Goyal [14] | Kirwan [15] | Clemens [16] | Ryan [17] |
| Publication year | 2018 | 2012 | 2017 | 2013 | 2017 | 2017 |
| Intervention, n | 76 | 20 | 46 | 25 | 81 | 18 |
| Age (years), mean (SD) | 17.6 (2.6) | 14.9 (1.3) | 14.1 (1.7) | 35.9 (10.6) | 14.0 (10.4-15.9)a | 40 (13.9) |
| Timeb (years), mean (SD) | 8.0 (4.5) | NSc | 7.1 (3.2) | 19.7 (9.6) | 4.9 (2.7-7.5)a | 27.3 (14.9) |
| Duration (months) | 12 | 3 | 12 | 6 | 3.6 | 4 |
| Intervention type | Usual care App | App | Usual care App | App Feedback | Retrospective analysis | Usual care App |
| App name | Young with Diabetes | Bant | Bant | Glucose Buddy | NS | NS |
| HbA1cd outcome | No significant change | No significant change | Decrease by 0.58% (P=.02) | Decrease in mean (SD) from 9.08% (1.18%) to 7.8% (0.75%) | No significant change | Decrease in median (9.1% to 7.8%) |
| SMBGe outcome | — | Increased mean daily frequency (2.4 to 3.6, P=.006, n=12) | — | No significant change | Increased 2.3 times | — |
| App perceived usefulnessf | Chat Room (among young people) | Reminders, blood glucose regulation, insulin and food regulation, emergency readiness, exercise | Trending feature, logbook, and home menu (statistics) | NAg; texting extensively used | Data synchronization | Bolus calculator and glucose control. Badges used by 17% |
| User satisfaction | >80% would recommend | 88% would continue to use | 76% “satisfied/very satisfied” 96% would continue using app |
NA | NA | NA |
aMedian and interquartile range.
bSince diagnosis.
cNS: not specified.
dHbA1c: hemoglobin A1c.
eSMBG: self-monitoring blood glucose.
fEither a 5-point or 10-point Likert scale was used to score.
gNA: not assessed.