title: Characteristics of Chinese m-Health Applications for Diabetes Self-Management.
abstract: To examine the features and types of health information provided in Chinese diabetes mobile applications (apps) for patients' self-management.
  
  
  
  Through multiple rounds of screening, we identified a total of 95 relevant iOS (Apple, Cupertino, CA) and Android™ (Google, Mountain View, CA) apps and examined each app's features and health information types based on each app's description in the app stores. We used a 15-feature algorithm to evaluate the apps' abilities for supporting diabetic patients' self-management, based on U.S. national standards for diabetes self-management. We also adapted the health information wants framework to analyze the types of information that the apps provided for diabetic patients.
  
  
  
  Diabetes education was the most common feature, provided by 75% of the apps. Blood glucose checking was enabled by 65% of the apps. Diet management, insulin checking, and physical activity monitoring were enabled by 53%, 49%, and 44% of the apps, respectively. Only a small percentage of the apps enabled psychosocial support (29%) or tracking of blood pressure (14%), cholesterol (14%), or body mass index (11%). None of the apps provided all seven types of information posited by the health information wants framework. Only a small percentage of the apps provided information about psychosocial support (29%), healthcare providers (24%), or healthcare facilities (24%). Information about complementary and alternative medicine was the least likely type of information provided in the apps, with only 7% of the apps providing this type of information.
  
  
  
  Our findings have important implications for improving the quality of Chinese diabetes mobile apps to facilitate patients' self-management.
authors.affiliation: 1 School of Nursing, The University of Texas at Austin , Austin, Texas.
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Nie
authors.affiliation: 1 School of Nursing, The University of Texas at Austin , Austin, Texas.|2 School of Information, The University of Texas at Austin , Austin, Texas.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: 3 Department of Endocrinology, Sichuan Academy of Medical Sciences & Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital , Chengdu, Sichuan, China .
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: 4 Department of Diabetes Education, 2nd Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine , Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China .
authors.forename: Yan Min
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Shan
mesh_terms: D015190:Blood Glucose Self-Monitoring; D002681:China; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000628:therapy*; D004032:Diet; D015444:Exercise; D006801:Humans; D007328:Insulin; D063731:Mobile Applications / Q000592:standards*; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000379:methods; D012648:Self Care / Q000379:methods*; D012944:Social Support
chemical_list: D007328:Insulin
keywords: e-health; mobile health; technology; telehealth