Use of self-monitoring tools in a clinic sample of adults with type 2 diabetes

Self-monitoring is an effective strategy for chronic disease management; many readily available mobile applications allow tracking of diabetes-related health behaviors but their use has not yet been integrated into routine clinical care. How patients engage with these applications in the real world is not well understood. The specific aim of this study is to survey adults with type 2 diabetes (T2D) regarding self-monitoring behaviors, including mobile application use. In 2015, we surveyed an adult diabetes clinic population (n = 96) regarding self-monitoring behaviors: diet, physical activity, weight, and blood glucose. Self-monitoring with any method ranged from 20-90 %. About half of the participants owned smartphones; few had mobile applications. The most common app-tracked behavior was physical activity, then weight and diet. Despite numerous available mobile health-tracking applications, few T2D adults from our sample used them, though many reported self-monitoring with other methods.