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The Internet of Things is a method of connecting network-capable devices such as sensors and actuators to the Internet to extract usable data or information through standard Internet Protocol (IP) protocols (Tripathi, 2019; Deshkar & Menon, 2016; Mistry et al., 2020; Noor et al., 2019). Internet of Things-based medical acquisition detectors can be used to monitor the glucose level in Diabetes (Stergiou, Psannis, Kim, 2018). Diabetes is a chronic disease caused by an increase in the levels of glucose, which causes organ damage (Wei et al., 2018). Diabetes has no cure, constantly monitoring it is vital for a prolonged healthy life (Zimmermann et al., 2018). Internet of Things can be used to remotely monitor Diabetic patients without the need to visit a hospital, therefore, reducing travel costs (Rodbard, 2016). Furthermore, the adoption of IoT is vital in Diabetes by providing Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM). Continuous glucose monitoring uses Fitbit-like utilities to provide continuous long-term monitoring of Diabetes thus reducing morbidity and premature mortality caused by Diabetes (Stergiou, Psannis, Kim, 2018; Alansari et al.,2018). Additionally, IoT can be used for activity and diet tracking in Diabetic patients' where wristband sensors are used to measure the number of calories burned during physical activity, etc. (Al-Taee et al., 2015). Moreover, IoT can provide real-time data that may be used for preventive maintenance by detecting Diabetic equipment wear and tear (Al-Turjman et al., 2020). This ensures fewer errors when measuring blood sugar (Brous et al., 2020). The ability of smart devices to gather data at the right time and in the correct format without human intervention reduces the risk of human error during data capturing of a Diabetic patients’ medical vital signs (Luna-Delrisco et al., 2018). Internet of Things further helps by providing information promptly to the medical professionals leading to a quick diagnosis (Stergiou, Psannis, Kim, 2018; Akkas et al., 2020). An example of such IoT-based applications is the diabetic management program, created by Health Net Connect (Sun et al., 2020).To avoid stock-outs of Diabetes medical supplies Internet of Things can also be used to monitor inventory levels (Dhanvijay & Patil, 2019). Finally, IoT can be used for better capacity planning, and to assess the usage and functionality of products used in the monitoring of Diabetes (Lin et al., 2017; Nord et al., 2019).
Global statistics reveal that 116 million people with diabetes are from China whilst India is the second leading nation (77 million people with diabetes) followed by the United States with 11% of the population aged 20-79 years (31 million people with diabetes) (Federation, 2019). Africa is alleged to have the highest proportion of undiagnosed diabetes, with 60% of adults unaware of their condition (Agyemang et al., 2016). In 2017, an estimated 16 million adults lived with diabetes in Africa with the number likely to increase by about 156% in 2040 (Federation, 2019). The prevalence of Diabetes will continue to grow and outpace all other global regions because Africa faces many challenges including limited health and social care resources, nutrition transition, and the continued costs of diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis (Zimmermann et al., 2018). Furthermore, there are negative economic implications due to work absenteeism caused by Diabetes-related sicknesses (Mapa-Tassou et al., 2019).
Developing countries are still not fully aware of the benefits of IoT in the management of chronic diseases despite all the aforementioned benefits (Martínez-caro et al., 2018). Low adoption rates are attributed to the high costs of technology adoption, lack of funding, lack of diabetologists, inadequate policy framework, security, and privacy concerns (Sharma & Kshetri, 2020; Tran Ngoc et al., 2018). These challenges are not well researched and documented. There are other factors, such as culture that have been shown to influence technology adoption, but there are limited studies linking culture to IoT adoption for diabetes. Researchers pose that this important detail lacks in existing models (Mapa-Tassou et al., 2019). The Internet of Things presents an effective platform to monitor diabetes, providing health benefits as well as reducing the financial burden on patients (Mapa-Tassou et al., 2019). Developing countries have failed to adopt new methods to help monitor Diabetes. It is with this background that the authors are conducting this research to bridge this technology gap.