Information Seeking Behavior among Diabetic Patients Attending Primary Healthcare in Western Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Two-Center Study
Journal Title: International Journal of Medical Research Professionals - Year 2017, Vol 3, Issue 1
Abstract
Background: Saudi Arabia, unlike most western countries has relatively poor health education systems with very little material online being in native language. These predispose patients with diabetes to problems associated with treatment non-compliance that stems from poor health literacy. Objectives: To investigate information seeking behavior among diabetic patients attending primary healthcare centers (PHCs) by evaluating the importance given by these patients to different types of diabetes-related medical information, sources they rely on and obstacles they face while seeking such information. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 365adult diabetic patients following-up at two PHCs in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. A 5-part validated, semi-structured questionnaire was administered to assess: 1) demographic and clinical data; 2) importance of different types of diabetes-related information (13 items); 3) importance of different sources of information (16 items); 4) important obstacles while seeking information; and 5) participants’ satisfaction about currently available information sources and frequency of internet utilization to seek medical information. Level of importance in parts 2, 3 and 4 was assessed using a 5-point Likert-type scale. Results: The typical respondent was a young to middle-aged (18-50 years) married male, with middle to secondary school educational level, diagnosed 1 to 10 years ago for type II diabetes and treated by oral hypoglycemic agents (OHA) only. Assessment of information seeking behavior showed no remarkable importance to any of the types of information (mean ± SD scores=1.44 ± 0.67 to 2.31 ± 0.58); although “symptoms of hypoglycemia”, “diabetes symptoms” and “proper diet” were reported to be important motivations to seek information for 35.5%, 24.6%, and 23.5% of the patients, respectively. Treating doctors and ophthalmologists were ranked first and second important sources of information (score=4.02 and 3.39, respectively); while nurses ranked12th (score=2.27). Problems in the doctor-patient relationship ranked the first important obstacle while seeking information (score=3.81). Majority of the patients declared being quite satisfied (55.3%) or very satisfied (7.1%) with their current possibilities of acquiring information about diabetes mellitus. Conclusion: There is inadequate information seeking behavior among diabetic patients attending PHCs including marginal importance given to different types of diabetes-related information and quasi-dependency on physicians and on the quality of doctor-patient relationship to actively access medical information.
Authors and Affiliations
Rayan Abdulrahim Qusaier, Yasir Eid Al-Tqiqi, Hazem Salem Al-Ahmadi, Abdullah Mastour Al-Qarni, Abdullah Mohammed Felemban
Keywords
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- EP ID EP541059
- DOI 10.21276/ijmrp.2017.3.1.008
- Views 61
- Downloads 0
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