Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare > Volume 14, Number 7 > Pp. 329-332

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RESEARCH Original articles

Designing mobile dietary management support technologies for people with diabetes

Eirik Årsand ^*  , James T Tufano  , James D Ralston  ^** and Per Hjortdahl 

^* Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine, University Hospital of North Norway, Tromsø, Norway; Department of Computer Science, University of Tromsø, Tromsø, Norway; School of Medicine, Biomedical and Health Informatics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA; Group Health Cooperative, Center for Health Studies, Seattle, Washington, USA; ^** School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA; University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

Correspondence: Eirik Årsand, Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine, University Hospital of North Norway, PO Box 35, N-9038 Tromsø, Norway (Fax: +47 777 54 098; Email: Eirik.Arsand{at}telemed.no)

We performed two cycles of laboratory-based usability testing of three food registration prototypes for people with diabetes. The design concepts were a commercial web application, various smartphones and a mobile phone photo blogging approach. Six adults with Type 1 diabetes and three adults with Type 2 diabetes participated in the usability tests. The results provided five distinct implications for devices for the future dietary management support of people with diabetes. Study participants valued many of the features offered by the three systems that were tested, although the usability tests also revealed several opportunities to enhance their design. Our findings suggest that further development is justified of mobile dietary and nutritional support for individuals living with diabetes. Applications that support healthy eating habits should be integrated with applications for managing blood glucose data and physical activity data, and potentially medication data as well.

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