Persuasive Systems Features in Digital Health Interventions for Diabetes Management: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a global health problem. Studies have shown that using mobile applications can help reduce the burden of this disease and contribute to its self-management. However, there is no full agreement on which persuasive features are most effective or have the greatest impact in promoting behavior change among these patients. Based on the Persuasive Systems Design (PSD), this study aimed to conduct a scoping review to investigate and identify essential PSD features in the context of T2DM. Excluding the duplicates, of the 638 records, 24 were selected and included. During our analysis, primary task support features self-monitoring (n = 22) and personalization (n = 11), computer-human dialog support feature known as reminders (n = 13), and credibility support expertise (n = 10) were found to be the most utilized in the studied applications. Other notable occurrences comprised credibility support feature authority (n = 7) and dialog support feature praise (n = 6). Eleven other less commonly utilized features were found.