The Usability of an mHealth Application in India for Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Background: Mobile health technologies (mHealth) are a rapidly evolving field in India and globally and are increasingly being used to address noncommunicable diseases, such as Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM). However, few studies have addressed user perceptions of T2DM mHealth applications (apps) in India. The purpose of this study was to determine the usability and compare results of an mHealth app designed to improve T2DM health literacy among subpopulations in India.

Methods: A descriptive comparative design was used. The mHealth App Usability Questionnaire (MAUQ) was used to research the usability of the T2DM mHealth app in India. Participants (N=95) were recruited via email and WhatsApp. They were first asked to use the mHealth app and then complete the usability questionnaire.

Results: Participants of the study were mainly single (86.3%) females (95.8%), ages 18-28 (89.5%) with some college degree (63.8%). The participant population was mostly unemployed (90.5%), lived in an urban area (76.8%), and were not previously diagnosed with T2DM (93.6%). Overall, users agreed with many of the questions and found the mHealth app easy to use (mean= 6.03; SD=1.54) on a scale of 1-7. Results showed that there was no significant difference in scores between age, gender, marital status, employment, or previous diagnosis rates and responses to the questions.

Conclusions: As a result of these findings, we can use the same interface and layout of the mHealth app with more confidence when creating other health education apps. This data has shown places of improvement for future apps, such as adding more information, additional questions, and more language options. With this data, we can create health literacy apps that are best suited for the user and easy to use.