Paper short abstract:

This study aims to describe how technological tools change and shape self-management among patients. We seek to demonstrate this by analyzing diabetes apps that use features of gamification and quantification to help patients suffering from type 1 diabetes to more easily control their parameters.

Paper long abstract:

The last decades have seen the growing influence of patients on their own medical care. The information society (Bell, 1973) contests the authority of scientific and medical knowledge, resulting in new patients who are able to redefine and negotiate their own illness experience. New technological devices used in the health sphere facilitate monitoring of many physical parameters in daily life and also radically modify the approach to health care.

Our contribution seeks to examine how type 1 diabetes, a chronic illness that needs constant and routine control, can be easily managed through technological tools. This study builds on the approach of Quantified-Self, introduced by Gary Wolf and Kevin Kelly in 2007, which consists of the digital and scrupulous measurement of various physical features. Frequent self-monitoring of blood glucose, indeed, allows patients to achieve good metabolic control. Our research sample consists of the five most downloaded diabetes apps taken from the iTunes App store. The methodology used is content analysis done on two different kinds of texts: the description provided by the App itself and the reviews provided by app users. Through features of gamification it is also possible to make the practice of quantification pleasant and enjoyable. In addition, these technological tools support the above-mentioned change in the role of patients, allowing them to become more responsible and involved in their own health care.