Using experiences of mobile application from the perspective of patients with diabetes mellitus: A qualitative meta-synthesis (Preprint)
BACKGROUND Mobile application has become a new tool for management of chronic disease like diabetes mellitus (DM). Up to date, most of the studies related to mobile application focus on the effectiveness of self-management, rarely take perceptions and experiences of users into account. OBJECTIVE To conduct a meta- synthesis of qualitative researches which associated with mobile application using experiences among diabetic patients in order to better understand those factors which facilitate or hinder patients’ embracement, and to provide recommendations for future mobile application design and disease management strategies. METHODS Literatures focused on experiences and perceptions of users in diabetes application were searched in PubMed, Web of Science and Cochrane Library between inception and June 2018. The Jonna Briggs Institute (JBI) Critical Appraisal Tool for qualitative studies was utilized to evaluate the quality of the selected studies. The searching results were synthesized by employing Integrating Methods. RESULTS Four studies were included for analysis, 17 findings were subsequently integrated into 6 categories and finally 2 synthesized results were defined, including the use of mobile application for diabetes can improve patients’ self-management and confidence in disease control, obtain more support from health care professionals, and reduce negative emotions; Problems and negative effects in use. CONCLUSIONS Mobile application is a helpful tool to initiate and maintain self-management among diabetic patients and more improvements are necessary for the sake of easy use and effectiveness. Further high-quality qualitative study is needed to better understand requirements and using experience of diabetics, health care professionals or other stakeholders.