Health Behaviour Change Techniques in Diabetes Management Applications: A Systematic Review
This review highlights gaps in mobile health apps for diabetes management, which could impact patients and developers by showing the need for more effective and tailored solutions.
The paper systematically reviewed diabetes management apps in the iTunes store, finding that most apps incorporate some persuasive design principles but often miss key behavior change techniques and focus narrowly on exercise and calorie tracking, with few tailored to specific diabetes types.
The rapid growth in mobile healthcare technology could significantly help control chronic diseases, such as diabetes. This paper presents a systematic review to characterise type 1 & type 2 diabetes management applications available in Apple's iTunes store. We investigated "Health & Fitness" and "Medical" apps following a two-step filtering process (Selection and Analysis phases). We firstly investigated the apps compliance to the persuasive system design (PSD) model. We then characterised the behaviour change techniques (BCTs) of top-ranked apps for diabetes management. Finally, we checked the apps regarding the stages of disease continuum. The findings revealed apps incorporation some PSD principles based on their configuration and behaviour change techniques. Most apps miss the element of BCT and focus on measuring exercise and caloric intake. Few apps consider managing specific diabetes type, which raises doubts about the effectiveness of those apps in providing sustainable diabetes management. Moreover, people may need multiple apps to initiate and maintain a healthy behaviour.