Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA.
Center for Outcomes Research, Houston Methodist, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Dec 23;19(1):127. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19010127.
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.
医疗资源匮乏社区的居民获取有效的疾病管理资源在美国有限。移动医疗应用程序（mHealth 应用程序）为患者提供了一种经济有效的方法来监测和自我管理他们的病情，并与医疗服务提供者进行沟通；然而，目前的糖尿病自我管理应用程序在设计过程中很少将医疗资源匮乏社区的最终用户纳入其中。本研究记录了针对医疗资源匮乏患者的糖尿病自我管理应用程序的关键利益相关者驱动的设计要求。在德克萨斯州南部医疗资源匮乏的县对 97 名糖尿病患者和 11 名医疗保健提供者进行了半结构化调查访谈，以了解他们对糖尿病自我管理应用程序的看法和偏好，以及他们对该应用程序使用和实用性的看法。患者强调需要易于访问的教育内容，并需要快速访问有关调节血糖、饮食和锻炼以及使用多媒体而不是文本形式进行体育活动的指导。医疗保健提供者表示，血糖监测、教育内容和糖尿病数据的图形可视化是评分最高的应用程序功能之一。这些发现表明，针对服务不足人群的特定设计要求可以提高此类干预措施的采用率、可用性和可持续性。设计师应考虑健康素养和数商、语言障碍、数据可视化、数据输入复杂性和信息交换能力。
