TY - JOUR
T1 - Appropriation of mobile health for diabetes self-management
T2 - Lessons from two qualitative studies
AU - Rossmann, Constanze
AU - Riesmeyer, Claudia
AU - Brew-Sam, Nicola
AU - Karnowski, Veronika
AU - Joeckel, Sven
AU - Chib, Arul
AU - Ling, Rich
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Constanze Rossmann, Claudia Riesmeyer, Nicola Brew-Sam, Veronika Karnowski, Sven Joeckel, Arul Chib, Rich Ling. Originally published in JMIR Diabetes (http://diabetes.jmir.org), 29.03.2019. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Diabetes, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://diabetes.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
PY - 2019/1/1
Y1 - 2019/1/1
N2 - Background: To achieve clarity on mobile health's (mHealth's) potential in the diabetes context, it is necessary to understand potential users' needs and expectations, as well as the factors determining their mHealth use. Recently, a few studies have examined the user perspective in the mHealth context, but their explanatory value is constrained because of their limitation to adoption factors. Objective: This paper uses the mobile phone appropriation model to examine how individuals with type 1 or type 2 diabetes integrate mobile technology into their everyday self-management. The study advances the field beyond mere usage metrics or the simple dichotomy of adoption versus rejection. Methods: Data were gathered in 2 qualitative studies in Singapore and Germany, with 21 and 16 respondents, respectively. Conducting semistructured interviews, we asked respondents about their explicit use of diabetes-related apps, their general use of varied mobile technologies to manage their disease, and their daily practices of self-management. Results: The analysis revealed that although some individuals with diabetes used dedicated diabetes apps, most used tools across the entire mobile-media spectrum, including lifestyle and messaging apps, traditional health information websites and forums. The material indicated general barriers to usage, including financial, technical, and temporal restrictions. Conclusions: In sum, we find that use patterns differ regarding users' evaluations, expectancies, and appropriation styles, which might explain the inconclusive picture of effects studies in the diabetes mHealth context.
AB - Background: To achieve clarity on mobile health's (mHealth's) potential in the diabetes context, it is necessary to understand potential users' needs and expectations, as well as the factors determining their mHealth use. Recently, a few studies have examined the user perspective in the mHealth context, but their explanatory value is constrained because of their limitation to adoption factors. Objective: This paper uses the mobile phone appropriation model to examine how individuals with type 1 or type 2 diabetes integrate mobile technology into their everyday self-management. The study advances the field beyond mere usage metrics or the simple dichotomy of adoption versus rejection. Methods: Data were gathered in 2 qualitative studies in Singapore and Germany, with 21 and 16 respondents, respectively. Conducting semistructured interviews, we asked respondents about their explicit use of diabetes-related apps, their general use of varied mobile technologies to manage their disease, and their daily practices of self-management. Results: The analysis revealed that although some individuals with diabetes used dedicated diabetes apps, most used tools across the entire mobile-media spectrum, including lifestyle and messaging apps, traditional health information websites and forums. The material indicated general barriers to usage, including financial, technical, and temporal restrictions. Conclusions: In sum, we find that use patterns differ regarding users' evaluations, expectancies, and appropriation styles, which might explain the inconclusive picture of effects studies in the diabetes mHealth context.
KW - Diabetes
KW - Germany
KW - MHealth
KW - Mobile phone
KW - Self-management
KW - Singapore
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85097169566&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.2196/10271
DO - 10.2196/10271
M3 - Article
SN - 2371-4379
VL - 4
JO - JMIR Diabetes
JF - JMIR Diabetes
IS - 1
M1 - e10271
ER -