ODP198 Free Diabetes Apps: An Intervention to Reduce Health Disparities in our Diabetic Patients
Authors: Chien Daniel , Wu Gloria , Zhao Weichen 
Published: November 2022

Background

85% of Americans own a smartphone and there were 230 billion downloads in 2021. 1,2 American diabetic patients have been reported to have limited health literacy. 3 55% of Americans do not graduate from high school. 4 African American, Hispanic patients and Asian patients comprise 20%, 22% and 19% of diabetic patients, respectively, but a greater proportion of hospitalization rates. 5 Many of these patients and their families use mobile apps for health questions. The accessibility of eHealth apps is changing how patients access health information.

Purpose

To evaluate free diabetes health apps as an intervention to reduce health disparities in our diabetic patients.

Methods

Using search term, "diabetes" in GooglePlayStore(Android/AD) and AppleAppStore(iOS) to find the best, free diabetes apps. Exclusion criteria: less than 100,000 downloads (DL) on Google and&lt;1600 reviews (RE) on Apple (Apple does not provide download data). The app introduction was "pasted" into readabilityformulas.com and webfx.com for analysis via Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease (FRE), Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level Score (FGL), Simple Measure of Gobbledygook Index (SI), and the Dale-Chall Adjusted Grade Level (DCGL).

Results

AD(DL): 1-mySugr(1M),2-OnetouchReveal(1M),3-DiabetesBloodSugar(1M),4-BloodGlucoseTracker(500K),5-Diabetes(500K),6-Health2Sync(500K),7-DiabetesM(500K), 8-GlucoseBuddy(500K), 9-BeatDiabetes(100K), 10- Contour Diabetes App (100K);iOS(RE): 1-OnetouchReveal(87K), 2-GlucoseBuddyDiabetesTracker(21K), 3-Onedrop(20K), 4-GlucoseBloodSugarTracker(17K), 5-Livongo(13K), 6-mySugr(9.6K), 7-Sugarmate(9.4K),8-Klinio(3K), 9- Glycemic Index Load Net Carbs (2.2K), 10- Diabetes Logs (1.6K). Push notification=19/20 apps(AD=9, iOS=10). Connect users to GoodRx=0/20 apps. Connect users to professional care team/diabetes education=8/20 apps(AD=3, iOS=5). Connect users to free/discounted insulin/health products=0/20 apps. Spanish=11/20, Chinese=5/20 apps (AD=3, iOS=8, some apps have both). Only 2/20 apps were at 7-8th grade and the rest were high school and beyond. Free test strips were offered only on 1/20 apps(Livongo).

Conclusion

Free diabetes apps are helpful and may serve as an easily accessible educational tool for our patients. The physician can play a role in navigating the eHealth space with the patient. References: Perez S. App stores saw record 218 billion downloads in 2020, consumer spend of $143 billion, TechCrunch.com. Posted 13 Jan 2021. https://techcrunch.com/2021/01/13/app-stores-saw-record-218-billion-downloads-in-2020-consumer-spend-of-143-billion/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAABDcJH4OHOqQiUHWuJW-KMA566Z-7bAE2FfaumvCMoPgE5oC0RoRUDiVnpqdDbe4aYSrlv2Uc-FHkQkx19emxvqXb9Q_ldDGOcYelOSGaj4bldElJyxUIIBaEe5y1vCwJcCagPCmKWjNbMsNhnij34mmepSYbbEqDW0p7BnGlpBk"&gt;https://techcrunch.com/2021/01/13/app-stores-saw-record-218-billion-downloads-in-2020-consumer-spend-of-143-billion/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAABDcJH4OHOqQiUHWuJW-KMA566Z-7bAE2FfaumvCMoPgE5oC0RoRUDiVnpqdDbe4aYSrlv2Uc-FHkQkx19emxvqXb9Q_ldDGOcYelOSGaj4bldElJyxUIIBaEe5y1vCwJcCagPCmKWjNbMsNhnij34mmepSYbbEqDW0p7BnGlpBk Accessed 17 Jan 2022. Ceci L. Annual number of mobile app downloads worldwide 2021. Statista.com. Posted 14 Jan 2022. https://www.statista.com/statistics/271644/worldwide-free-and-paid-mobile-app-store-downloads/ Accessed 17 Jan 2022. Abdullah A, Lieu SM, Salim H et al. Prevalence of Limited Health Literacy Among Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Systematic Review. PLoS One. 2019;17(1): e0261430. National Center for Education Statistics. https://nces.ed.gov/naal/kf_demographics.asp. Accessed 20 Jan 2022 Cheng YJ et al. Prevalence of Diabetes by Race and Ethnicity in the United States, 2011-2016. JAMA. 2019;322(24): 2389-2398. doi: 10.1001/jama.2019.19365. Accessed 19 Jan 2022.

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