Diabetologie und Stoffwechsel 2019; 14(S 01): S9
DOI: 10.1055/s-0039-1688130
ePoster
Digitalisierung und neue Technologien
Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York

Assessment of the Rwandan diabetics' needs and expectations to develop their first diabetes self-management Smartphone Application (Kir'App)

CB Kabeza
1   University of Rwanda, College of Medicine and Health Sciences/Rwamagana Campus, Rwanda, Kigali, Rwanda
,
L Harst
2   Technische Universität Dresden, Forschungsverbund Public Health Sachsen, Zentrum für Evidenzbasierte Gesundheitsversorgung, Dresden, Germany
,
PEH Schwarz
3   TU Dresden, Prävention und Versorgung des Diabetes, Medizinischen Klinik und Poliklinik III, Medizinische Fakultät Carl Gustav Carus, Dresden, Germany
,
P Timpel
3   TU Dresden, Prävention und Versorgung des Diabetes, Medizinischen Klinik und Poliklinik III, Medizinische Fakultät Carl Gustav Carus, Dresden, Germany
› Author Affiliations
Further Information

Publication History

Publication Date:
07 May 2019 (online)

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Research question:

What are the needs and expectations of Rwandan patients with diabetes for mHealth-supported diabetes self-management and how can this knowledge be used to develop the first patient-centred smartphone application (Kir'App)?

Methods:

Convenience sampling was used to recruit study participants at the Rwandan Diabetes Association. Twenty-one patients participated in semi-structured, in-depth, face-to-face interviews. Inductive thematic analysis was performed using Mayring's method of qualitative content analysis.

Results:

The study included 11 participants with type 1 (female = 5, male = 6) and 10 with type 2 (female = 6, male = 4) diabetes. Participants' age ranged from 18 to 69 years with a mean age of 35.29 years.

Eight main themes were identified: (1) Diabetes education and desired information provision, (2) Lack of diabetes knowledge and awareness, (3) Need for information in crisis situations, (4) Required monitoring and reminder functions, (5) Information on nutrition and alcohol consumption, (6) Information on physical activity, (7) Coping with burden of disease, through social support and networks; (8) App features.

Conclusion:

This study provides recommendations that will be used to decide on the overall range of functions as well as to design specific features of the first Rwandan diabetes self-management smartphone application (Kir'App). The future impact of the application on the Rwandan diabetics' self-management capacity and quality of life will be evaluated afterwards.

Identified needs and expectations support strict user-centred development and design of mhealth tools.