Towards better transitions for children with diabetes: User experiences on a mobile health app

Children with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) are required to manage their illness to alleviate further long-term complications. Although children are expected to engage in appropriate self-management activities once they become older, many of the children remain passive actors in managing their condition. Due to the lack of knowledge and skills, as well as changes in parent-child relationships, children demonstrate low self-care adherence. Consequently, parents also face difficulties in defining their role in long-term care. This study, part of a larger study, comprised of three phases: mobile app development, prototype feasibility testing, and usability testing with child-parent dyads users. As part of the third phase, this study used qualitative interviews with 24 child-parent dyads to understand the existing facilitators and barriers in using the app. Our findings suggest that users found that the app reminded them to track their blood glucose (BG) values and facilitated child-parent communication in a user-friendly manner. By capturing the emerging themes in adopting the app from the children's perspective, we will iteratively refine the app to better suit the users' requirements.