Petdiabet: Ludic Application as a Resource in Control of Diabetes Mellitus through the Carbohydrates Counting

Abstract

. Diabetes makes feeding complex, especially for children. This situation brings several challenges to the family and the children during their life, especially in social life moments. Would a tool based on technologies such as mobile solution, gamification, and data analysis be possible to help families in this situation? In order to facilitate the control of Diabetes Mellitus types 1 and 2, the PetDiabet application was developed with the proposal of a virtual pet simulator. This mobile application aims to effectively help on the treatment of Diabetes through a therapeutic resource interactive play, allowing patients, especially children and adolescents, to have more autonomy in relation to their condition. The application follows a therapeutic technique called carbohydrate counting, which consists of adjusting the glycemia of the patient based on the quantification of carbohydrates that they will ingest at each meal. By keeping track of carbohydrates consumption, the application can calculate the insulin dosage necessary for the treatment and provide greater versatility in the diet of the user that has. diabetes. One of the key points of the presented application is that it is based on gamification, to provide more engagement to the user, when registering their daily blood glucose dosages, their meals, and when reaching goals. By doing that, the user can be rewarded by earning virtual coins, that can be used on the development of their Virtual Pet in the application. This approach makes the treatment of the diabetes condition more natural and fun. The data collected during the use of the application enables a structured analysis to optimize the patient follow-up for the doctors involved. on mobile devices, it was designed and built from the learning, control and treatment needs of children who have type 1 diabetes mellitus. DM-1, monitoring the values of what will be consumed during the daily food routine of its users, in addition to capillary blood glucose tests and the amount of insulin administered by patients. It has informative and didactic content with illustrative details that aim to stimulate knowledge and adherence to the proposed treatment in a playful and interactive way.