ODP198 Free Diabetes Apps: An Intervention to Reduce Health Disparities in our Diabetic Patients

BACKGROUND: 85% of Americans own a smartphone and there were 230 billion downloads in 2021. 1,2 American diabetic patients have been reported to have limited health literacy. 3 55% of Americans do not graduate from high school. 4 African American, Hispanic patients and Asian patients comprise 20%, 22% and 19% of diabetic patients, respectively, but a greater proportion of hospitalization rates. 5 Many of these patients and their families use mobile apps for health questions. The accessibility of eHealth apps is changing how patients access health information. PURPOSE: To evaluate free diabetes health apps as an intervention to reduce health disparities in our diabetic patients. METHODS: Using search term, "diabetes" in GooglePlayStore(Android/AD) and AppleAppStore(iOS) to find the best, free diabetes apps. Exclusion criteria: less than 100,000 downloads (DL) on Google and<1600 reviews (RE) on Apple (Apple does not provide download data). The app introduction was "pasted" into readabilityformulas.com and webfx.com for analysis via Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease (FRE), Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level Score (FGL), Simple Measure of Gobbledygook Index (SI), and the Dale-Chall Adjusted Grade Level (DCGL). RESULTS: AD(DL): 1-mySugr(1M),2-OnetouchReveal(1M),3-DiabetesBloodSugar(1M),4-BloodGlucoseTracker(500K),5-Diabetes(500K),6-Health2Sync(500K),7-DiabetesM(500K), 8-GlucoseBuddy(500K), 9-BeatDiabetes(100K), 10- Contour Diabetes App (100K);iOS(RE): 1-OnetouchReveal(87K), 2-GlucoseBuddyDiabetesTracker(21K), 3-Onedrop(20K), 4-GlucoseBloodSugarTracker(17K), 5-Livongo(13K), 6-mySugr(9.6K), 7-Sugarmate(9.4K),8-Klinio(3K), 9- Glycemic Index Load Net Carbs (2.2K), 10- Diabetes Logs (1.6K). Push notification=19/20 apps(AD=9, iOS=10). Connect users to GoodRx=0/20 apps. Connect users to professional care team/diabetes education=8/20 apps(AD=3, iOS=5). Connect users to free/discounted insulin/health products=0/20 apps. Spanish=11/20, Chinese=5/20 apps (AD=3, iOS=8, some apps have both). Only 2/20 apps were at 7-8th grade and the rest were high school and beyond. Free test strips were offered only on 1/20 apps(Livongo). CONCLUSION: Free diabetes apps are helpful and may serve as an easily accessible educational tool for our patients. The physician can play a role in navigating the eHealth space with the patient. References: Perez S. App stores saw record 218 billion downloads in 2020, consumer spend of $143 billion, TechCrunch.com. Posted 13 Jan 2021. https://techcrunch.com/2021/01/13/app-stores-saw-record-218-billion-downloads-in-2020-consumer-spend-of-143-billion/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAABDcJH4OHOqQiUHWuJW-KMA566Z-7bAE2FfaumvCMoPgE5oC0RoRUDiVnpqdDbe4aYSrlv2Uc-FHkQkx19emxvqXb9Q_ldDGOcYelOSGaj4bldElJyxUIIBaEe5y1vCwJcCagPCmKWjNbMsNhnij34mmepSYbbEqDW0p7BnGlpBk">https://techcrunch.com/2021/01/13/app-stores-saw-record-218-billion-downloads-in-2020-consumer-spend-of-143-billion/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAABDcJH4OHOqQiUHWuJW-KMA566Z-7bAE2FfaumvCMoPgE5oC0RoRUDiVnpqdDbe4aYSrlv2Uc-FHkQkx19emxvqXb9Q_ldDGOcYelOSGaj4bldElJyxUIIBaEe5y1vCwJcCagPCmKWjNbMsNhnij34mmepSYbbEqDW0p7BnGlpBk Accessed 17 Jan 2022. Ceci L. Annual number of mobile app downloads worldwide 2021. Statista.com. Posted 14 Jan 2022. https://www.statista.com/statistics/271644/worldwide-free-and-paid-mobile-app-store-downloads/ Accessed 17 Jan 2022. Abdullah A, Lieu SM, Salim H et al. Prevalence of Limited Health Literacy Among Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Systematic Review. PLoS One. 2019;17(1): e0261430. National Center for Education Statistics. https://nces.ed.gov/naal/kf_demographics.asp. Accessed 20 Jan 2022 Cheng YJ et al. Prevalence of Diabetes by Race and Ethnicity in the United States, 2011-2016. JAMA. 2019;322(24): 2389-2398. doi: 10.1001/jama.2019.19365. Accessed 19 Jan 2022. Presentation: No date and time listed