ArticleArchives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique2023
Attitudes and experiences of registered diabetes specialists in using health apps for managing type 2 diabetes: results from a mixed-methods study in Germany 2021/2022.
Article in Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- Technological functionality and system architecture of mobile health interventions for diabetes management: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Frontiers in public health · 2025Pooled it
- Prescribing Experiences, Potentials, and Challenges of Digital Health Applications in the Field of Hormones and Metabolism: Cross-Sectional Survey Study of Health Care Providers in Germany.JMIR formative research · 2025Article
- Trust in Medical AI: The Case of mHealth Diabetes Apps.Journal of evaluation in clinical practice · 2025Article
- A Composite Indicator for Primary Diabetes Care: A Cross-Sectional Study in Hungary.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- In-patient expenditure between 2011 and 2021 for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a hospital-based multicenter retrospective study in southwest China.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundHardly any area of application for health apps is seen to be as promising as health and lifestyle support in type 2 diabetes mellitus. Research has emphasised the benefits of such mHealth apps for disease prevention, monitoring, and management, but there is still a lack of empirical data on the role that health apps play in actual type 2 diabetes care. The aim of the present study was to gain an overview of the attitudes and experiences of physicians specialising in diabetes with regard to the benefits of health apps for type 2 diabetes prevention and management.
methodsAn online survey was conducted amongst all 1746 physicians at practices specialised in diabetes in Germany between September 2021 and April 2022. A total of 538 (31%) of the physicians contacted participated in the survey. In addition, qualitative interviews were conducted with 16 randomly selected resident diabetes specialists. None of the interviewees took part in the quantitative survey.
resultsResident diabetes specialists saw a clear benefit in type 2 diabetes-related health apps, primarily citing improvements in empowerment (73%), motivation (75%), and compliance (71%). Respondents rated self-monitoring for risk factors (88%), lifestyle-supporting (86%), and everyday routine features (82%) as especially beneficial. Physicians mainly in urban practice environments were open to apps and their use in patient care despite their potential benefit. Respondents expressed reservations and doubts on app user-friendliness in some patient groups (66%), privacy in existing apps (57%), and the legal conditions of using apps in patient care (80%). Of those surveyed, 39% felt capable of advising patients on diabetes-related apps. Most of the physicians that had already used apps in patient care saw positive effects in increased compliance (74%), earlier detection of or reduction in complications (60%), weight reduction (48%), and decreased HbA1c levels (37%).
conclusionsResident diabetes specialists saw a real-life benefit with added value from health apps for managing type 2 diabetes. Despite the favourable role that health apps may play in disease prevention and management, many physicians expressed reservations regarding usability, transparency, security, and privacy in such apps. These concerns should be addressed more intensively towards bringing about ideal conditions for integrating health apps successfully in diabetes care. This includes uniform standards governing quality, privacy, and legal conditions as binding as possible with regard to apps and their use in a clinical setting.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.