title: Evaluating diabetes mobile applications for health literate designs and functionality, 2014.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The expansion of mobile health technologies, particularly for diabetes-related applications (apps), grew exponentially in the past decade. This study sought to examine the extent to which current mobile apps for diabetes have health literate features recommended by participants in an Institute of Medicine Roundtable and compare the health literate features by app cost (free or not).
  
  
  METHODS
  We used diabetes-related keywords to identify diabetes-related apps for iOS devices. A random sample of 110 apps (24% of total number of apps identified) was selected for coding. The coding scheme was adapted from the discussion paper produced by participants in the Institute of Medicine Roundtable.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Most diabetes apps in this sample addressed diabetes management and therapeutics, and paid apps were more likely than free apps to use plain language strategies, to label links clearly, and to have at least 1 feature (a "back" button) that helps with the organization.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Paid apps were more likely than free apps to use strategies that should be more useful and engaging for people with low health literacy. Future work can investigate ways to make free diabetes mobile apps more user-friendly and accessible.
authors.affiliation: Health Communication Research Laboratory, George Warren Brown School of Social Work, and Washington University Center for Diabetes Translation Research, Washington University in St Louis, 700 Rosedale Ave, Campus Box 1009, St Louis, MO 63112-1408. Email: ccaburnay@wustl.edu.
authors.forename: Charlene A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Caburnay
authors.affiliation: Health Communication Research Laboratory, George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University in St. Louis.
authors.forename: Kaitlin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Graff
authors.affiliation: George Warren Brown School of Social Work, and Washington University Center for Diabetes Translation Research, Washington University in St Louis.
authors.forename: Jenine K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Harris
authors.affiliation: Health Communication Research Laboratory, George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University in St. Louis.
authors.forename: Amy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: McQueen
authors.affiliation: Health Communication Research Laboratory, George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University in St. Louis.
authors.forename: Madeleine
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Health Communication Research Laboratory, George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University in St. Louis.
authors.forename: Maggie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fairchild
authors.affiliation: Health Communication Research Laboratory, George Warren Brown School of Social Work, and Washington University Center for Diabetes Translation Research, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, Missouri.
authors.forename: Matthew W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Kreuter
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D059019:Clinical Coding; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000145:classification / Q000628:therapy*; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2; D019468:Disease Management; D005260:Female; D057220:Health Literacy; D006801:Humans; D063731:Mobile Applications / Q000145:classification / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015969:National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, U.S., Health and Medicine Division; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D011381:Programming Languages; D012985:Software Design; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000379:methods; D060145:Text Messaging; D014481:United States; D014584:User-Computer Interface