A Mobile App for the Self-Management of Type 1 Diabetes Among Adolescents: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Open accessAbstract
Background: While optimal blood glucose control is known to reduce the long-term complications associated with type 1 diabetes mellitus, adolescents often struggle to achieve their blood glucose targets. However, their strong propensity toward technology presents a unique opportunity for the delivery of novel self-management interventions. To support type 1 diabetes self-management in this population, we developed the diabetes self-management app bant, which included wireless blood glucose reading transfer, out-of-range blood glucose trend alerts, coaching around out-of-range trend causes and fixes, and a point-based incentive system. Objective: The primary objective was to evaluate bant ’s effect on hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) through a randomized controlled trial (RCT). Secondary measures (eg, self-monitoring of blood glucose [SMBG]) were also collected to assess bant ’s impact on the self-management behaviors of adolescents with type 1 diabetes. Methods: We enrolled 92 adolescents into a 12-month RCT, with 46 receiving usual care and 46 receiving usual care plus bant. Clinical outcome data were collected at quarterly research visits via validated tools, electronic chart review, glucometer downloads, and semistructured interviews. App satisfaction was assessed at 6 and 12 months, and at trial end, users ranked bant components based on perceived usefulness. Mobile analytics captured frequency of blood glucose uploads, which were used to categorize participants into high, moderate, low, or very low engagement levels. Results: Linear mixed models showed no changes in primary and secondary clinical outcomes. However, exploratory regression analysis demonstrated a statistically significant association between increased SMBG and improved HbA1c in the intervention group. For a subgroup of bant users taking SMBG ≥5 daily, there was a significant improvement in HbA1c of 0.58% (P=.02), while the parallel subgroup in the control arm experienced no significant change in HbA1c (decrease of 0.06%, P=.84). Although app usage did diminish over the trial, on average, 35% (16/46 participants) were classified as moderately or highly engaged (uploaded SMBG ≥3 days a week) over the 12 months. Conclusion: Although primary analysis of clinical outcomes did not demonstrate differences between the bant and control groups, exploratory analysis suggested that bant may positively impact the use of SMBG data and glycemic control among youth. The next generation of bant will aim to remove barriers to use, such as deploying the app directly to personal devices instead of secondary research phones, and to explore the utility of integrating bant into routine clinical care to facilitate more frequent feedback. Future evaluations of mHealth apps should consider more robust research tools (eg, ResearchKit) and alternative RCT study designs to enable more rapid and iterative evaluations, better suited to the nature of rapidly evolving consumer technology. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01899274; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01899274 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6qWrqF1yw)
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Goyal et al found a significant relationship between increased blood glucose readings and improved glycated hemoglobin after 6 months among users who reported 5 or more readings a day.
“Goyal et al segmented all users who reported 5 or more blood glucose readings a day into a subgroup for secondary analyses and found a significant relationship between increased readings and improved glycated hemoglobin after 6 months [59].”
From A Library of Analytic Indicators to Evaluate Effective Engagement with Consumer mHealth Apps for Chronic Conditions: Scoping Review (2019) · cites this paper as [59]
Goyal et al identified a significant interaction between entering a reading on at least three days a week and improved daily blood glucose self-monitoring.
“They also identified a significant interaction between users who entered a reading on at least three days a week, and improved daily blood glucose self-monitoring.”
From A Library of Analytic Indicators to Evaluate Effective Engagement with Consumer mHealth Apps for Chronic Conditions: Scoping Review (2019) · cites this paper as [59]
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- Authors
- Goyal, S., Nunn, C. A., Rotondi, M., Couperthwaite, A. B., Reiser, S., Simone, A., Katzman, D. K., Cafazzo, J. A., & Palmert, M. R.
- Affiliations
- University Health Network (CA)
- Hospital for Sick Children (CA)
- York University (CA)
- Trillium Health Centre (CA)
- University of Toronto (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Goyal, Shivani
- ORCID
- Venue
- JMIR mHealth and uHealth
- Publisher
- JMIR Publications Inc.
- Published
- 2017-06-19
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- e82
- ISSN
- 2291-5222 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5495971
- OpenAlex
- W2658158643
- Cited by
- 146
- References
- 42
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 26 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 23 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 20 · 2018: 17 · 2017: 2
- FWCI
- 24.38
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- JMIR mhealth and uhealth (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Thrasher Research Fund
- Hospital for Sick Children
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Mobile Health and mHealth Applications
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism › Diabetes Management and Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism › Diabetes Management and Education
- Keywords
- type 1 diabetes, adolescents, mobile health apps, diabetes self-management, glycemic control, HbA1c, self-monitoring of blood glucose, app engagement, app satisfaction, technology acceptance, diabetes complications prevention, health behavior change, mobile analytics
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