Barriers to mobile personal health assistant in patients living with diabetes

Objectives: Continued use of a digital health assistant that helps patients living with diabetes to self-manage and deal with complex problems in order to enhance their health status is a healthcare priority. The objective was to explore the barriers related to the use of a mobile personal health assistant for patients with type 2 diabetes. Methods: Eighty-one participants were offered a personal health assistant through a smartphone application. They completed a questionnaire after initial training (T₀) and after 1 month’s experience (T₁). Results and Conclusion: Most had a positive behavioral intention before using it, but the opposite was found after 1 month. There were positive correlations between behavioral intention and the eight related factors. The strongest correlations were with satisfaction and perceived usefulness at T₀ and T₁, respectively. The factors’ mean values decreased after 1 month. The best predictors of behavioral intention were satisfaction and performance expectancy at T₀ and T₁, respectively, which predicted the status of 88.4% and 82.7% of the sample. Our findings will help health experts to build better tools that satisfy patients and meet their expectations.