The Design, Usability, and Feasibility of a Family-Focused Diabetes Self-Care Support mHealth Intervention for Diverse, Low-Income Adults with Type 2 Diabetes

Abstract EN

Family members’ helpful and harmful actions affect adherence to self-care and glycemic control among adults with type 2 diabetes (T2D) and low socioeconomic status.

Few family interventions for adults with T2D address harmful actions or use text messages to reach family members.

Through user-centered design and iterative usability/feasibility testing, we developed a mHealth intervention for disadvantaged adults with T2D called FAMS.

FAMS delivers phone coaching to set self-care goals and improve patient participant’s (PP) ability to identify and address family actions that support/impede self-care.

PPs receive text message support and can choose to invite a support person (SP) to receive text messages.

We recruited 19 adults with T2D from three Federally Qualified Health Centers to use FAMS for two weeks and complete a feedback interview.

Coach-reported data captured coaching success, technical data captured user engagement, and PP/SP interviews captured the FAMS experience.

PPs were predominantly African American, 83% had incomes <$35,000, and 26% were married.

Most SPs ( n = 7 ) were spouses/partners or adult children.

PPs reported FAMS increased self-care and both PPs and SPs reported FAMS improved support for and communication about diabetes.

FAMS is usable and feasible and appears to help patients manage self-care support, although some PPs may not have a SP.