A Patient-Centered Self-Care Support System for Diabetics

According to WHO statistics there are about 347 million people worldwide having diabetes. Unfortunately cures for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes have proved elusive to medical science. The causes of diabetes are a complex, but are in large part due to rapid increases in overweight, obesity and physical inactivity. In general to help prevent diabetes and its complications, people should achieve and maintain healthy body weight, be physically active, eat a healthy diet, and avoid tobacco use. Achieving this goal requires a patient-centered approach on the part of healthcare. In this research we pull together IT in public domain and propose a system, called Scas Dia, with features of reminders, plotting and advance-warnings that can benefit diabetics by improving the quality of self-care. Scas Dia, implemented in Java, facilitates the recording of data related to diet control, physical exercises and diabetes indicators. Nonetheless it builds ARIMA models with R on selected indicators so that predictions for the selected indicators can serve as advance warnings on the status of diabetes care. Scas Dia can help reduce risk factors that contribute to the development of complications.