Purpose

The purpose of this paper is the investigation of type 2 diabetes patients' information seeking behavior in terms of their information needs, sources and barriers faced by patients when seeking information. The information seeking behavior is associated with clinical patient data.

Design/methodology/approach

The relevant literature is reviewed, and the results of a cross-sectional survey informed by Wilson's macro-model of information seeking behavior are reported. The survey includes 106 outpatients from the diabetes clinic of a Greek major university hospital and includes information seeking behaviors and patient's clinical evidence.

Findings

The most important health information needs are related to the complications, symptoms and causes of diabetes, to the proper diet for diabetics and the measures adopted to avoid foot complications. Furthermore, the most important information resources were physicians, ophthalmologists, books, broadcast media and family members. Obstacles encountered during information seeking include the complicated nature of health information, which involves scientific terms as well as psychological issues. The diabetes stage is correlated with information needs for diabetes medication, while the years from the first diagnosis are negatively correlated with the use of informal sources.

Research limitations/implications

The information needs and sources of diabetic patients, as well as the main obstacles to this pursuit, could potentially have important implications in designing a future information campaign and information services for diabetes patients.

Originality/value

The Wilson's macro-model of information seeking has been applied to the diabetic patients' information seeking behavior; while information needs, information sources and information obstacles are correlated with clinical evidence from patients’ hospital records.

中文翻译：

---

一项横断面调查将健康信息寻求行为与 2 型糖尿病患者的临床数据联系起来

目的

本文的目的是从信息需求、信息来源以及患者在寻求信息时面临的障碍等方面调查2型糖尿病患者的信息寻求行为。信息搜索行为与临床患者数据相关。

设计/方法/方法

回顾了相关文献，并报告了基于威尔逊信息寻求行为宏观模型的横断面调查结果。该调查包括希腊主要大学医院糖尿病诊所的 106 名门诊患者，包括信息寻求行为和患者的临床证据。

发现

最重要的健康信息需求与糖尿病的并发症、症状和原因、糖尿病患者的适当饮食以及为避免足部并发症所采取的措施有关。此外，最重要的信息资源是医生、眼科医生、书籍、广播媒体和家庭成员。信息获取过程中遇到的障碍包括健康信息的复杂性，涉及科学术语和心理问题。糖尿病阶段与糖尿病药物的信息需求相关，而首次诊断后的年数与使用非正式来源呈负相关。

研究限制/影响

糖尿病患者的信息需求和来源，以及这一追求的主要障碍，可能对设计未来的糖尿病患者信息活动和信息服务具有重要意义。

原创性/价值

威尔逊信息搜索宏观模型已应用于糖尿病患者的信息搜索行为；而信息需求、信息来源和信息障碍与来自患者医院记录的临床证据相关。