Principal Investigator Ms Mary Finn
Research Title: “Development and pilot of a smart phone application to improve the health of overweight and obese individuals with type 1 diabetes”
Meath Foundation Research Funding Awarded 2016
The Development and pilot of a smart phone application to improve the health of overweight and obese individuals with type 1 diabetes, was presented by Ms. Mary Finn, who is a Diabetes Dietitian at Tallaght University Hospital.
Her project aimed to develop and pilot a smart phone application to help improve physical activity levels among those with type 1 diabetes.
Prior to this research project she carried out an initial piece of work to establish the adherence to physical activity recommendations among Irish adults with Type 1 diabetes; identify the barriers to physical activity in this population and look at the effects of lack of recommended exercise on Cardiovascular disease (CVD) risks and glycemic control.
Result of this work showed that just 23 (32%) met physical activity recommendations (accelerometry). However, 97% self-reported meeting these recommendations, so there was a gap between perception and reality. The research also showed that 57% of the participants were overweight or obese (28% were obese) and that lack of physical activity was negatively impacting their glycaemic control and CVD risk factors. Ms. Finn found that the main barrier to physical activity among those with type 1 diabetes was fear of hypoglycaemia.
“The idea behind my research was to establish how we could get these individuals at high risk of CVD to be more active and if a smart phone application could help improve physical activity levels”.
“In Phase 1, we used focus groups to assess the attitudes, needs and expectations of an app for the management of exercise with type 1 diabetes and we used suggestions we got back from these focus groups to help design the app”.
“Information within the app is based on a recent paper published in The Lancet: Exercise Management in Type 1 Diabetes: a consensus statement and which we used for evidence and suggestions provided in the app.”
Ms. Finn said that Phase 2 of the project involved the design and pilot of the App for the management of exercise of Irish adults with Type 1 diabetes.
“So T1 Exercise was developed and piloted among 12 individuals with type 1 diabetes. Feedback was that it is easy to navigate, had a low user burden, was visually appealing and well laid out. Ninety per cent said it was useful to help them complete exercise and 80% said they would use it long term. They suggested a notification to encourage them to exercise and the ability to download all of their information to their diary, so that they could take it to their clinic appointment for review with their team.”
Ms. Finn demonstrated how the app works. Once the users select their insulin administration, their exercise type, intensity, duration, whether the exercise is planned / unplanned and when the exercise is in relation to their meal the app then provides them with suggestions for before and after exercise. These suggestions give information on insulin adjustment, blood glucose targets and carbohydrate intake.
Fifteen minutes before their exercise, users get a notification to check their blood glucose and a similar one at the end of the exercise. The following day at 12 noon they get a notification asking for feedback, along with a pre-bed and following morning blood glucose. If they didn’t exercise for two days it sends them a notification to remind them to exercise.
The app also provides nutrition information on many areas, including carbohydrate intake, hypoglycaemia avoidance and recovery post exercise. Finally they can send all the information inputted into the app to a CSV excel file that they can take to their clinical appointment for review with their team if needed. Basically, the app takes complex scientific information and makes it more accessible to individuals with type 1 diabetes.
“The app called T1Eercise is now complete and patients will be informed as soon as it is available from the app store.”