Apps as a health education tool for people with diabetes mellitus: what is available in Portuguese?

Abstract

Health applications for mobile devices are proving to be an important tool for health education to support the treatment of different diseases, such as diabetes mellitus (DM). In this sense, this research analyzed the functionalities of existing applications in the Portuguese language aimed at helping people with DM. A systematic search was carried out to identify the applications using the indexes “Diabetes control,” “Diabetes,” “Glucose,” and “Insulin,” in the operating systems Android and iOS. A total of 576 applications were found, but only 63 (10.9%) met the inclusion criteria. According to their functionality, the applications presented the following possibilities of use: 13 were educational; 12 monitored physical activity; 18 were food diary; 28 counted carbs; 34 monitored insulin; 49 monitored blood glucose; 33 presented graphs; 9 warned about the presence of hypo or hyperglycemia; 17 reminded about blood glucose collection; and 5 had cooking recipes. Functionalities that help change behavior and individualize treatment strategies are still incipient. The development of auxiliary tools for the interaction of the applications with their users and the proof of their effectiveness is suggested.