Evaluation of mobile apps for treatment of patients at risk of developing gestational diabetes

This study evaluates mobile apps using a theory-based evaluation framework to discover their applicability for patients at-risk of gestational diabetes. This study assessed how well existing mobile apps on the market meet the information and tracking needs of patients with gestational diabetes and evaluated the feasibility of how to integrate these apps into patient care. A search was conducted in the Apple iTunes and Google Play stores for mobile apps that contained keywords related to the following concepts of nutrition: diet, tracking, diabetes and pregnancy. Evaluation criteria were developed to assess the mobile apps on five dimensions. Overall, the apps scored well on education and information functions and scored poorly on engagement functions. There are few apps that provide comprehensive evidence-based educational content, tracking tools and integration with electronic health records. This study demonstrates the need to develop apps that have comprehensive content, tracking tools and ability to bidirectionally share data.