Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a complex, chronic condition that requires both high quality clinical care and effective self-management to minimize its dire health and economic consequences [1-3]. Over the course of a lifetime, people will need a variety of skills and knowledge to enable them to control their condition, sometimes on a day-to-day basis, and modify their approach when circumstances change. The success of diabetes care relies mainly on patients’ daily self-care activities and providers’ continuous support. Diabetes, therefore, is a disease in which information and knowledge from the patients’ perspective has an important role to its management and as a result, diabetes self-management education (DSME) and on-going support are significant contributors to metabolic and psychological outcomes. The overall objectives of DSME are to support informed decision-making, self-care behaviors, problem-solving and active collaboration with the health care team and to improve clinical outcomes, health status, and quality of life [4]. Training and education to enable people to self-manage their diabetes helps prevent unnecessary health care utilization and hospitalizations [5], and improves glycemic control [6].
“Information behavior” is the currently preferred term used to describe the many ways in which human beings interact with information; in particular, the ways in which people seek and utilize information [7]. A number of models have been proposed to characterize various aspects of information behavior [8,9]. These imply that the information is evaluated as to its effect on need, and forms part of a feedback loop that may start the process of seeking all over again if the need is not satisfied. Studies have identified the central role of information seeking and acquisition in enabling a person to cope with both the initial diagnosis and the ongoing impacts of a life-threatening illness [10]. However, it appears that relatively little has been investigated within the scientific community specifically focused on the information behavior of people with diabetes [11]. This is especially true in comparison to the much more extensive literature covering the information behavior of people with other diseases, such as cancer [12,13].
The purpose of the present study was to examine the information seeking behaviors of patients with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, including their stated needs for information, resources used, obstacles encountered and their degree of satisfaction regarding DM related information in a sample of diabetic patients attending a major University hospital, in Greece. To our knowledge, no such study has been performed in Greek patients so far.