Development and validation of a MHEALTH technology for the promotion of self-care for adolescents with diabetes

Abstract

Self-care is encouraged in the type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (DM1) setting. Thus, this research aimed to develop and validate a mobile application (APP) to promote self-care for adolescents with DM1. The method was divided into two stages: development and validation, ranging from literature review, benchmarking, prototype construction to validation by specialists. The APP construction was subsidized by the seven steps proposed by the American Association of Diabetes Educators. The screens were designed and possible functions were selected. After the design, the APP prototype was developed and named “DM Agendinha”. The content validation process was mediated by the Suitability Assessment of Materials tool, where the percentage obtained was 85.3%, characterizing the APP as “Superior Material”. The Smartphone Usability questionnaire was employed for technical validation, and the APP reached a global Content Validity Index of 0.96. We concluded, therefore, that the use of this material by adolescents will favor the acquisition of new knowledge and adherence to healthy practices, considering that it is a highly intelligible electronic technology.