Health Information Avoidance Behavior of Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Abstract

Along with the convenience of receiving health information and the rise of public health consciousness, seeking health information is regarded as a common phenomenon. However, the public is seldom aware of health information avoidance behavior. As for chronic patients, the fact that they receive health information more frequently than healthy people, the act of receiving or avoiding information would more directly influence the medical decision and health maintenance. This study refers to type 2 diabetics as a target and uses the “critical incident interview technique” to collect data. There are ten patients interviewed. This study aims to explore the health information avoidance behavior and factors from the patients’ perspectives, and to investigate the strategies of decreasing health information avoidance, and to develop a framework of health information avoidance behavior. Finally, this study proposes practical suggestions for medical and health organizations regarding diabetes and is expected to remind the public to examine their own health information behavior. (Article content in Chinese with English extended abstract)

Keywords

• information avoidance
• health information avoidance
• health information behavior
• type 2 diabetes mellitus