Appropriation of mHealth for Diabetes Self-Management: Lessons From Two Qualitative Studies

• In Event: Mobile Health

Abstract

This paper uses the Mobile Phone Appropriation Model to examine how type 1 and type 2 diabetics integrate mobile technology into their everyday self-management. Data were gathered in two qualitative interview studies, in Singapore and Germany, with 21 and 15 respondents respectively. Respondents were asked about their use of explicitly diabetes-related apps and their general use of other mobile technologies to manage their disease. The analysis shows that diabetics did not limit themselves to only using dedicated diabetes apps, but rather used tools from the whole mobile media ecosystem, including lifestyle and messaging apps, and traditional health information websites/forums. The material also shows that some interviewees did not use these technologies because of financial, technical, and temporal reasons. In sum, we find use patterns differ with regards to users’ evaluations, expectancies, and appropriation styles, which might explain the fuzzy picture of effects studies in the diabetes mHealth context.

Authors

• Constanze Rossmann, U of Erfurt

• Nicola Brew-Sam, U of Erfurt

• Claudia Riesmeyer, LMU Munich

• Veronika Karnowski, LMU Munich

• Sven Joeckel, U of Erfurt

• Arul Chib, Nanyang Technological Univ

• Rich Ling, Nanyang Technological U/Telenor