{"doi":"10.2196/18224","title":"Perspectives From Underserved African Americans and Their Health Care Providers on the Development of a Diabetes Self-Management Smartphone App: Qualitative Exploratory Study","abstract":"BACKGROUND: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) affects approximately 10% of the US population, disproportionately afflicting African Americans. Smartphone apps have emerged as promising tools to improve diabetes self-management, yet little is known about the use of this approach in low-income minority communities. OBJECTIVE: The goal of the study was to explore which features of an app were prioritized for people with T2DM in a low-income African American community. METHODS: Between February 2016 and May 2018, we conducted formative qualitative research with 78 participants to explore how a smartphone app could be used to improve diabetes self-management. Information was gathered on desired features, and app mock-ups were presented to receive comments and suggestions of improvements from smartphone users with prediabetes and T2DM, their friends and family members, and health care providers; data were collected from six interactive forums, one focus group, and 15 in-depth interviews. We carried out thematic data analysis using an inductive approach. RESULTS: All three types of participants reported that difficulty with accessing health care was a main problem and suggested that an app could help address this. Participants also indicated that an app could provide information for diabetes education and self-management. Other suggestions included that the app should allow people with T2DM to log and track diabetes care-related behaviors and receive feedback on their progress in a way that would increase engagement in self-management among persons with T2DM. CONCLUSIONS: We identified educational and tracking smartphone features that can guide development of diabetes self-management apps for a low-income African American population. Considering those features in combination gives rise to opportunities for more advanced support, such as determining self-management recommendations based on data in users' logs.","journal":"JMIR Formative Research","year":2020,"id":84798,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":9,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9608,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":407612,"name":"Ylva Trolle Lagerros","orcid":"0000-0001-6816-7577","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":434403,"name":"Laura Sena","orcid":"0000-0003-2812-2491","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":434404,"name":"Joel Gittelsohn","orcid":"0000-0003-2761-3280","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":301538,"name":"Larry W. Chang","orcid":"0000-0001-7985-4567","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":434405,"name":"Wayne Zachary","orcid":"0000-0001-5610-6777","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":289576,"name":"Pamela J. Surkan","orcid":"0000-0002-0334-5931","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":434402,"name":"Tai Barber-Gumbs","orcid":"0000-0003-0852-2236","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":42,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T21:55:38.506333Z","pmid":"33635279","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}