Abstract
The current era can be referred to as a mobile health (mHealth) revolution as mHealth applications created for smartphones are flourishing in the market. Research shows that the quality of life for individuals living with diabetes can be enhanced through the effective management of diabetes by using smartphones. The social, emotional and physical behaviour of adolescents has the biggest impact on trying to achieve this objective. Evidence suggests that the use of mHealth applications can be used for the effective self‐management of diabetes. Therefore, by generating recommendations that adolescents can adhere to, particularly when using mHealth applications could help them manage their illness more effectively. The main objective of this study was to determine what recommendations would enable adolescents to utilise mHealth applications effectively to assist them in managing their diabetes. A qualitative research methodology was carried out in order to find out how mHealth applications can assist adolescents with managing their diabetes more effectively. The sample consisted of 15 adolescents that were finding it difficult to manage their diabetes and were identified by their healthcare practitioners. The group of adolescents used four specific mHealth applications for ten days each. Evaluation criteria tools were then used to rate the specific mHealth applications for diabetes self‐management and focus group interviews were conducted in order to determine the views, opinions and experiences of the adolescents who used the mHealth applications. Recommendations were generated in order to serve as something similar to that of an instruction manual as to how mHealth applications for diabetes self‐management should be used. This instruction manual was then tested to determine whether it could assist adolescents with managing their diabetes using mHealth applications, and was proven successful. One of the key recommendations that were made was that the adolescent needs to identify exactly what he or she finds difficult to manage about diabetes. Then the adolescent needs to find a mHealth application that has that feature which will assist the adolescent with managing the issue.