Sugar slay: a gamified decision support ecosystem for type 1 diabetes

Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) management demands consistent attention to blood glucose levels, insulin dosing, physical activity, sleep, and diet-tasks that are especially burdensome for adolescents and young adults navigating new independence. While continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) systems and wearable fitness devices provide real-time physiological data, the cognitive load of interpreting this information and maintaining consistent self-care behaviors remains a significant barrier for patients and their support networks.

We developed the Sugar Slay ecosystem, comprising a gamified mobile decision support application for T1D individuals and a companion application, Sugar Slay Care, for caregivers and supporters. The main application integrates CGM and wearable device data to generate real-time, personalized predictions using advanced machine learning models, including a Sequence-to-Sequence Bidirectional LSTM (Seq2Seq BiLSTM). To inform the design of Sugar Slay Care, we conducted a need-finding study with six caregivers and supporters to identify features critical to balancing autonomy with safety.

Among the machine learning models evaluated, the Seq2Seq BiLSTM demonstrated the best performance in forecasting blood glucose trends. The need-finding study identified key caregiver requirements, informing the development of a companion application that supports safety monitoring without undermining patient independence.

Sugar Slay integrates predictive modeling with habit-building gamification strategies to encourage daily engagement and proactive self-management. By addressing the social dimension of T1D care through Sugar Slay Care, this work contributes to next-generation digital health tools that unite physiological data, artificial intelligence, and behavioral science for user-centered chronic disease management.