@Article{info:doi/10.2196/jmir.4312,
author="Jamal, Amr
and Khan, Samina A
and AlHumud, Ahmed
and Al-Duhyyim, Abdulaziz
and Alrashed, Mohammed
and Bin Shabr, Faisal
and Alteraif, Alwalid
and Almuziri, Abdullah
and Househ, Mowafa
and Qureshi, Riaz",
title="Association of Online Health Information--Seeking Behavior and Self-Care Activities Among Type 2 Diabetic Patients in Saudi Arabia",
journal="J Med Internet Res",
year="2015",
month="Aug",
day="12",
volume="17",
number="8",
pages="e196",
keywords="Internet; diabetes mellitus, type 2; self-care; consumer health information; telemedicine; medical informatics; health education; Google; eHealth; e-patients; health behavior; Middle East; Saudi Arabia",
abstract="Background: Health information obtained from the Internet has an impact on patient health care outcomes. There is a growing concern over the quality of online health information sources used by diabetic patients because little is known about their health information--seeking behavior and the impact this behavior has on their diabetes-related self-care, in particular in the Middle East setting. Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the online health-related information--seeking behavior among adult type 2 diabetic patients in the Middle East and the impact of their online health-related information--seeking behavior on their self-care activities. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted on 344 patients with type 2 diabetes attending inpatient and outpatient primary health care clinics at 2 teaching hospitals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The main outcome measures included the ability of patients to access the Internet, their ability to use the Internet to search for health-related information, and their responses to Internet searches in relation to their self-care activities. Further analysis of differences based on age, gender, sociodemographic, and diabetes-related self-care activities among online health-related information seekers and nononline health-related information seekers was conducted. Results: Among the 344 patients, 74.1{\%} (255/344) were male with a mean age of 53.5 (SD 13.8) years. Only 39.0{\%} (134/344) were Internet users; 71.6{\%} (96/134) of them used the Internet for seeking health-related information. Most participants reported that their primary source of health-related information was their physician (216/344, 62.8{\%}) followed by television (155/344, 45.1{\%}), family (113/344, 32.8{\%}), newspapers (100/344, 29.1{\%}), and the Internet (96/344, 27.9{\%}). Primary topics participants searched for were therapeutic diet for diabetes (55/96, 57{\%}) and symptoms of diabetes (52/96, 54{\%}) followed by diabetes treatment (50/96, 52{\%}). Long history of diabetes, familial history of the disease, unemployment, and not seeking diabetes education were the most common barriers for online health-related information--seeking behavior. Younger age, female, marital status, higher education, higher income, and longer duration of Internet usage were associated with more online health-related information--seeking behaviors. Most (89/96, 93{\%}) online health-related information seekers reported positive change in their behaviors after seeking online health information. Overall odds ratio (OR 1.56, 95{\%} CI 0.63-3.28) for all self-care responses demonstrated that there was no statistically significant difference between those seeking health-related information online and non--health-related information seekers. However, health-related information seekers were better in testing their blood glucose regularly, taking proper action for hyperglycemia, and adopting nonpharmacological management. Conclusions: Physicians and television are still the primary sources of health-related information for adult diabetic patients in Saudi Arabia whether they seek health-related information online or not. This study demonstrates that participants seeking online health-related information are more conscious about their diabetes self-care compared to non--health-related information seekers in some aspects more than the others. ",
issn="1438-8871",
doi="10.2196/jmir.4312",
url="http://www.jmir.org/2015/8/e196/",
url="https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.4312",
url="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26268425"
}