Analysis Of Barriers To Health Information Seeking And Utilizing In Patients With Diabetes

ObjectiveTo explore that how diabetes patients were diagnosed with diabetes initially,the diabetes-related Knowledge,Attitude and Practices(KAP)among adult diabetes mellitus patients,how they got the needed health information and their preferred channels of health information seeking,thus analyzing the barriers of diabetic patients in acquiring and using diabetes-related health information,and provide advice for diabetes-related health information providers.MethodsA questionnaire survey was conducted among 125 T2 DM patients who were treated in Chongqing people's Hospital(a tertiary hospital),Chongqing Jiangbei District People's Hospital(a secondary hospital).The questionnaire mainly includes: basic information,diabetes-related knowledge-attitude-behavior,channels and contents of health information seeking diabetes patients preferred and barriers that may affect patients' health information seeking.After checking the questionnaire,Epidata 3.1 software was used to build the database.Statistical analyses were performed by using SPSS 19.0 statistical analysis software.Results1.The average score of the diabetes-related knowledge was 56.35 ± 22.38(8~114)when full credit was 128.The average score of the diabetes-related attitude was 82.25 ±7.71(63~105)when full credit was 105.The average score of the diabetes-related behavior or practice was 90.37 ± 10.75(50~124)when full credit was 128.2.The most popular channels to obtain health information for patients with diabetes were successively doctor(99.2%),television(44.8%),lectures/ brochures/ billboards(43.2%),friends or colleagues(32.0%),newspapers and books(28.8%).3.Barriers of diabetic patients using non-network channels to access health information mainly included “The doctors are busy”(46.4%),“they patients themselves are busy”(11.2%),“bad eyesight”(11.2),“poor hearing”(6.4%),“few trusted channels”(6.4%),“old age”(4.8%),“poor economic conditions”(4%),“strong professionality”(4%),“too far away from the hospital”(3.2%)and other(2.4%).Barriers of diabetic patients using network channels to access health information mainly included “patients cannot retrieved”(84%),“cannot determine the accuracy of retrieval”(7.2%),too much information(3.2%),“do not have access to the Internet”(4%),“low credibility”(1.6%),“strong professionality”(0.8%),“not updated in a timely manner”(0.8%).Conclusions1.The average level of knowledge,attitude and behavior of diabetic patients is not high,there is still much space for improvement.And there was a positive linear correlation among DM knowledge score,DM attitude score and DM behavior score.2.Household income,“whether there are complications”,“whether they have family member or friends who are medical staff”,duration,age,are the factors affecting the level of DM knowledge.Age,“whether they have family member or friends who are medical staff”,are the factors affecting the level of DM attitude.Genders,duration,BMI,are the influencing factors of DM behavior.Age,family income,“whether there are complications” and “whether they have family member or friends who are medical staff”,are the factors affecting whether it is difficult to obtain health information.Cardiovascular disease complications,diabetes knowledge score,diabetes attitude score,age and BMI are influencing factors of frequency of health information seeking in diabetes patients.3.Barriers of diabetic patients using non-network channels to access health information mainly included “The doctors are busy”,“they patients themselves are busy”,“bad eyesight”,“poor hearing”,“few trusted channels”,“old age”,“poor economic conditions”,“strong professionality”,“too far away from the hospital” and other.Barriers of diabetic patients using network channels to access health information mainly included “patients cannot retrieved”,“cannot determine the accuracy of retrieval”,too much information,“do not have access to the Internet”,“low credibility”,“strong professionality”,“not updated in a timely manner”.4.The channels and content of diabetes education should be more diverse for different populations.The spread of diabetes health information should take the communicators,communication content,communication channels and the audience into account.