Klinio mobile app for diabetes self-care: A pilot study of HbA1c improvement in type 2 diabetes patients

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is one of the leading causes of death globally. The incidence rate of DM is growing, and public health scientists estimate that the total number of patients diagnosed with the disease will reach 366 million in 2030. Given the scarcity of data on the effectiveness of mobile applications (apps) for diabetes control, we conducted a retrospective study reviewing the data from people using a diabetes mellitus management app called Klinio. The main objective of this study was to determine if there was a change in disease control reflected by changes in the level of HbA1c in the group of people using the mobile app. A logistic regression analysis was performed that could describe the factors (such as the number of logins, total time of use, gender, age, and BMI) linked to decreasing HbA1c. The main finding of this study was that users with type 2 diabetes and long and frequent use of the diabetes control app Klinio reduced their glycated hemoglobin level significantly. Users who logged into the app for 19 days and had at least 85 days from their first to their last login had a greater than two-fold increase in their chance to reduce the absolute HbA1c value by 0.5%.