UK-based Poole Hospital Diabetes Center has launched an informational app on iOS and Android for young adults with Type 1 diabetes. The app, The Type 1 Diabetes Friend: Alcohol Guide, offers users information about how alcohol can affect their bodies and what amount is safe.
E-Learning Manager at University of Southampton Andy Pulman developed the app in conjunction with Poole Hospital Diabetes Center after interviewing nine young people with Type 1 diabetes ages 18 to 21 as part of his PhD at Bournemouth University. The app was checked by Pulman's local Patient Advice and Liaison Service. Poole Hospital will offer the app to its patients.
“People can mistake the symptoms of a hypo for someone being drunk, as there are some side effects like being aggressive,” Pulman said in a statement.
For people with diabetes, drinking alcohol can increase their risk of hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar levels, which can lead to loss of consciousness. The Type 1 Diabetes Friend is meant to provide profiles of different drinks that contain information on each drink's sugar, carbohydrate and alcohol levels. The app also offers users a list of symptoms of hypoglycemia and ways they can counteract low blood sugar levels.
"Young people with diabetes are just like anyone else – chances are they will be drinking, but don’t necessarily want to tell their parents or doctors about it," Pulman said in a statement. “The idea of this is to have a friendly adviser that they can look to for information but is not seen as being direct nagging from either the health service or their parents."
He announced in late October that app downloads reached 1,101 and that he will begin to "do further research on its use and usefulness to young people with Type 1 diabetes." Pulman also conducted a small study about young people with Type 1 diabetes which was published in a Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) spinoff publication -- JMIR mHealth and uHealth. In the study, Pulman concluded young people have a key role to play in the implementation of new Type 1 diabetes technologies.
Besides the diabetes and alcohol app, three other prototypes were created from the study. The first is a diabetes and illness mobile app that helps people with diabetes understand how illness, even illnesses not tied to diabetes, can affect things like insulin doses. Pullman's other app prototype is meant to provide information for not only patients but also their friends, family, and colleagues on what to do if the user with diabetes gets hypoglycemia. The last suggestion is an app that uses social media channels like Twitter and Facebook to connect with other people with diabetes, a portal for patients to contact a health professional in an emergency, an alerts section to receive reminders about taking insulin, and a personalized news feed that updates the user about new glucometers, stem cell research and updates in the development of an artificial pancreas.
