COVID-19 pandemic has forced the medical fraternity to quickly adopt telemedicine for patient care. However, the feasibility and utility of smartphone app-based telecare for children with type 1 diabetes (T1D) in resource-limited settings is scarcely reported. A web-based survey, developed with “Google forms”, was sent to parents via the smartphone app WhatsApp, and the responses to the 12 coded questionnaire items were analyzed. The multiple-choice questions were related to the experiences, satisfaction, and expectations regarding the follow-up care delivered to children with T1D between April and November 2020. A total of 578 queries were resolved through WhatsApp during the study period. These were mostly related to reviewing reports, insulin titration, or other minor ailments. From 332 participants in the two WhatsApp groups, 183 responses (55.1%) were collected. The majority of respondents found the WhatsApp telecare model as easy to learn (69.4), simple to use (68.3%) and were overall satisfied (64.5%). None of the families reported that they would recommend against the use of telecare through WhatsApp. Most of them (45.9%) felt that this model could be used in addition to their physical follow-up visits. However, only 15.3% felt that this model could replace all clinic visits in the future. Only 12% of the respondents reported technical difficulties. In conclusion, virtual follow-up care delivered through WhatsApp is feasible and acceptable to families of children with T1D. The minor challenges related to internet access and low literacy levels were easily overcome. WhatsApp-based virtual visits may complement physical visits to the clinic, especially for patients from remote areas.
| Published in | International Journal of Diabetes and Endocrinology (Volume 6, Issue 2) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.ijde.20210602.12 |
| Page(s) | 64-68 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Science Publishing Group |
COVID-19 Pandemic, Telemedicine, WhatsApp, Type 1 Diabetes, Follow-up Visits, Children
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APA Style
Latika Rohilla, Priyanka Walia, Gurpreet Kaur, Saniya Gupta, Atul Gupta, et al. (2021). Smartphone App to Deliver Virtual Follow-up Care for Children with Type 1 Diabetes During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Experience in a Resource-Limited Setup. International Journal of Diabetes and Endocrinology, 6(2), 64-68. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijde.20210602.12
ACS Style
Latika Rohilla; Priyanka Walia; Gurpreet Kaur; Saniya Gupta; Atul Gupta, et al. Smartphone App to Deliver Virtual Follow-up Care for Children with Type 1 Diabetes During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Experience in a Resource-Limited Setup. Int. J. Diabetes Endocrinol. 2021, 6(2), 64-68. doi: 10.11648/j.ijde.20210602.12
AMA Style
Latika Rohilla, Priyanka Walia, Gurpreet Kaur, Saniya Gupta, Atul Gupta, et al. Smartphone App to Deliver Virtual Follow-up Care for Children with Type 1 Diabetes During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Experience in a Resource-Limited Setup. Int J Diabetes Endocrinol. 2021;6(2):64-68. doi: 10.11648/j.ijde.20210602.12
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Download@article{10.11648/j.ijde.20210602.12,
author = {Latika Rohilla and Priyanka Walia and Gurpreet Kaur and Saniya Gupta and Atul Gupta and Arti Yadav and Pamali Nanda and Jaivinder Yadav and Rakesh Kumar and Nancy Sahni and Devi Dayal},
title = {Smartphone App to Deliver Virtual Follow-up Care for Children with Type 1 Diabetes During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Experience in a Resource-Limited Setup},
journal = {International Journal of Diabetes and Endocrinology},
volume = {6},
number = {2},
pages = {64-68},
doi = {10.11648/j.ijde.20210602.12},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijde.20210602.12},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijde.20210602.12},
abstract = {COVID-19 pandemic has forced the medical fraternity to quickly adopt telemedicine for patient care. However, the feasibility and utility of smartphone app-based telecare for children with type 1 diabetes (T1D) in resource-limited settings is scarcely reported. A web-based survey, developed with “Google forms”, was sent to parents via the smartphone app WhatsApp, and the responses to the 12 coded questionnaire items were analyzed. The multiple-choice questions were related to the experiences, satisfaction, and expectations regarding the follow-up care delivered to children with T1D between April and November 2020. A total of 578 queries were resolved through WhatsApp during the study period. These were mostly related to reviewing reports, insulin titration, or other minor ailments. From 332 participants in the two WhatsApp groups, 183 responses (55.1%) were collected. The majority of respondents found the WhatsApp telecare model as easy to learn (69.4), simple to use (68.3%) and were overall satisfied (64.5%). None of the families reported that they would recommend against the use of telecare through WhatsApp. Most of them (45.9%) felt that this model could be used in addition to their physical follow-up visits. However, only 15.3% felt that this model could replace all clinic visits in the future. Only 12% of the respondents reported technical difficulties. In conclusion, virtual follow-up care delivered through WhatsApp is feasible and acceptable to families of children with T1D. The minor challenges related to internet access and low literacy levels were easily overcome. WhatsApp-based virtual visits may complement physical visits to the clinic, especially for patients from remote areas.},
year = {2021}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Smartphone App to Deliver Virtual Follow-up Care for Children with Type 1 Diabetes During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Experience in a Resource-Limited Setup AU - Latika Rohilla AU - Priyanka Walia AU - Gurpreet Kaur AU - Saniya Gupta AU - Atul Gupta AU - Arti Yadav AU - Pamali Nanda AU - Jaivinder Yadav AU - Rakesh Kumar AU - Nancy Sahni AU - Devi Dayal Y1 - 2021/04/26 PY - 2021 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijde.20210602.12 DO - 10.11648/j.ijde.20210602.12 T2 - International Journal of Diabetes and Endocrinology JF - International Journal of Diabetes and Endocrinology JO - International Journal of Diabetes and Endocrinology SP - 64 EP - 68 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2640-1371 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijde.20210602.12 AB - COVID-19 pandemic has forced the medical fraternity to quickly adopt telemedicine for patient care. However, the feasibility and utility of smartphone app-based telecare for children with type 1 diabetes (T1D) in resource-limited settings is scarcely reported. A web-based survey, developed with “Google forms”, was sent to parents via the smartphone app WhatsApp, and the responses to the 12 coded questionnaire items were analyzed. The multiple-choice questions were related to the experiences, satisfaction, and expectations regarding the follow-up care delivered to children with T1D between April and November 2020. A total of 578 queries were resolved through WhatsApp during the study period. These were mostly related to reviewing reports, insulin titration, or other minor ailments. From 332 participants in the two WhatsApp groups, 183 responses (55.1%) were collected. The majority of respondents found the WhatsApp telecare model as easy to learn (69.4), simple to use (68.3%) and were overall satisfied (64.5%). None of the families reported that they would recommend against the use of telecare through WhatsApp. Most of them (45.9%) felt that this model could be used in addition to their physical follow-up visits. However, only 15.3% felt that this model could replace all clinic visits in the future. Only 12% of the respondents reported technical difficulties. In conclusion, virtual follow-up care delivered through WhatsApp is feasible and acceptable to families of children with T1D. The minor challenges related to internet access and low literacy levels were easily overcome. WhatsApp-based virtual visits may complement physical visits to the clinic, especially for patients from remote areas. VL - 6 IS - 2 ER -
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