Effect of mobile learning (application) on self-care behaviors and blood glucose of type 2 diabetic patients

Abstract

Purpose More than 70% of the health expenditure is related to chronic diseases. Therefore, an efficient managerial program can markedly reduce medical and administrative costs and benefit both patients and service providers. The use of mobile technologies can be very helpful in this regard. This study was conducted to determine the effect of mobile learning (application) on self-care behaviors and blood glucose control of type 2 diabetic patients attending the Diabetes Clinic of Imam Khomeini Hospital Complex. Methods This interventional, quasi-experimental study was conducted on 51 diabetic patients. The patients were randomly assigned to case and control groups, and a specifically designed application was used in the case group for three months. Selfcare behavior, FBS, and HbA 1 C were assessed in both groups before and three months after the intervention, and the results were analyzed after the intervention. The Summary of Diabetes Self-Care Activities (SDSCA) measure and medical records was used for data collection. Descriptive and inferential statics (paired t test, ANCOVA analysis) were used for data analysis.

Effectiveness of Disease-Specific mHealth Apps in Patients With Diabetes Mellitus: Scoping Review

“…In total, we included 27 papers analyzing 1646 patients in the intervention groups and 1241 in the control groups. Of the 27 papers, 7 were focused on T1DM (308 patients in the intervention groups and 129 patients in the control groups) [43][44][45][46][47][48][49], 12 were focused on T2DM (743 patients in the intervention groups and 645 patients in the control groups) [50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61], and 4 were focused on GDM (339 patients in the intervention groups and 343 patients in the control groups) [62][63][64][65]. The remaining 4 papers did not specify the type of DM they looked at or included a mix of DM types (256 patients in the intervention groups and 124 patients in the control groups) [66][67][68][69].…”

“…In total, 743 patients in intervention groups and 645 patients in control groups were investigated in the studies focused on T2DM. Eleven of the studies reported a decrease of HbA 1c within the app intervention groups, yielding a mean difference of -0.42% [50][51][52][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61], but only 1 study reported a significant change of -1.1% (P<.001) [56]. The proportion changes when differences between intervention and control groups were considered.…”

“…The proportion changes when differences between intervention and control groups were considered. Of 11 studies that included control groups in their study design, 7 studies reported significant differences (mean difference: -0.78%, -1.51 to -0.35) in favor of the app intervention groups [51,[53][54][55][56][57][58], while 3 studies did not find a significant difference between groups [52,59,60] and 1 study did not report on differences between groups [61]. Moreover, Kim et al [61] found a significant decrease of 0.4% (P<.001) in HbA 1c in their subgroup analysis for participants with a high satisfaction level and no significant decrease in participants with a low satisfaction level.…”

“…Fasting blood glucose was included in 2 studies (51 patients in the intervention groups and 54 patients in the control groups) [54,57]. Both studies found a significant difference between groups favoring the intervention groups (-28.23 mg/dL, P<.001 [54]; -9.6 mg/dL, P=.019 [57]).…”

“…Two studies (229 patients in the intervention groups and 224 patients in the control groups) used the SDSCA questionnaire to evaluate self-care [52,54]. Only 1 study reported a significant difference between the groups (P<.001) [54].…”