Investigating the relationship between e-health literacy and the tendencies and preferences of patients with type 2 diabetes in using self-management technologies
Hasan Siamian, Malihe Ram, Shahrbanoo Pahlevanynejad, Sara Afrazandeh, Zahra Karbasi Dahouji, Azam SabahiBACKGROUND:
Type 2 diabetes is known as the most common type of diabetes and requires continuous and comprehensive patient management and support. Diabetes self-management is a set of defined activities and behaviors the patient performs to achieve control and management of diabetes in their daily life. This study examines the relationship between e-health literacy and the tendencies plus preferences of patients with type 2 diabetes in using self-management technologies of their disease in Ferdows city in 2022.
MATERIALS AND METHODS:
In this descriptive-analytical study, the research population consisted of all clients of health centers and hospitals of Ferdows city, whereby 305 patients with type 2 diabetes were randomly selected and examined. The inclusion criteria were age over 18 years, reading and writing literacy, and being able to use a mobile phone. The collection tool was a three-part questionnaire including a checklist of individual characteristics, a standard 8-question Norman electronic health literacy questionnaire, and a researcher-made questionnaire on the preferences and tendencies of diabetic patients in the field of using mobile health in self-management of the disease. The data were described using descriptive statistics analysis including frequency tables, mean, variance, and standard deviation by SPSS software version 26, after which nonparametric tests such as Mann–Whitney, Kruskal–Wallis, and Spearman’s correlation coefficient were used.
RESULTS:
A total of 305 people participated in this study, of whom 153 (50.2%) were men and the rest were women. The average age of the participants in the research was 50.17 ± 12.91 years. The average health literacy score of the participants in the study was 27.02 ± 5.21. The number of people who used methods based on companion health to manage their disease was 278 people; among the various methods, telephone call-based ones were the most frequent with 69.2%, followed by the use of SMS among patients with a relative frequency of 51.5% as the most used method. Out of 305 patients participating, 111 people had not used any of the health-related methods in managing their disease. Most of the people (55.9%) mentioned that they did not know that these methods exist for managing their disease.
CONCLUSION:
Given the low level of e-health literacy among patients, implementing national diabetes programs and providing self-management education to patients should be a priority. The use of disease management strategies along with the usage of technologies would enhance patient interaction with electronic tools, which would, in itself, improve e-health literacy.