Endocrine Abstracts

JOINT2898

Introduction: Emerging trends insmartphone usage have led to integration of smartphone technologies in diabetes management via mobile application. Ideally, a newly-developed application should be evaluated in terms of its effectiveness and usability to ensure patients’ and continuous engagement. However, majority of the applications are not evaluated on the effectiveness in improving in health outcomes.

Objective: We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness and usability of complementary interactive automated data entry diabetes management tool vs standard physician care.

Methods: Diabetes mellitus patients treated with insulin were randomly assigned to intervention (standard of care plus interactive mobile application) or control arms (standard physician care without mobile application). Every patient was provided with bluetooth-enabled glucometer and strips as well as blood pressure measuring set. Blood glucose and blood pressure data were automatically synced to the mobile application for the intervention arm and pharmacists monitored the patients remotely every month in addition to standard physician care. Meanwhile, patients in the control arm who received only standard physician care, recorded the glucose and blood pressure monitoring manually. Demographic data, haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), systolic and diastolic blood pressure readings, insulin doses, hypoglycaemic episodes and usability of the interactive mobile application via questionnaire were collected at baseline and 3 months post-intervention.

Results: A total of 112 patients (63. 4% female, mean age 53. 1 years, mean duration of diabetes 16. 3 years) with similar baseline characteristics for intervention and control arms completed the study. Glycaemic control improved significantly, in the intervention arm as compared to control arm with HbA1c -1. 22±1. 36% (95% CI -1. 59, -0. 84) and -0. 23±1. 04% (95% CI -0. 50, 0. 04) respectively (P < 0. 001). Blood pressure improved significantly in the control arm with systolic and diastolic blood pressure reduced by 6. 72±17. 26 mmHg (P = 0. 005) and 2. 95±8. 97 mmHg (P = 0. 016) respectively. There was no difference in insulin doses in both arms but hypoglycaemic episodes reduced significantly in the intervention arm, P = 0. 016. Most of the patients (87. 8%) in the intervention arm reported good usability and were satisfied with the interactive mobile application.

Conclusion: The interactive diabetes management tool with automated glucose and blood pressure data entry improved glycaemic control and reduced hypoglycaemic episodes significantly with high satisfaction among users. This application has proven to be an effective tool for remote monitoring by healthcare professionals, providing timely oversight and serving as a valuable alternative for patient monitoring especially in the rural areas.

Keywords: interactive diabetes application, glycaemic control, blood pressure, usability, glucose monitoring