Electronic Physician (Jun 2019)
Systematic development of a Weighted Hierarchical Topic Model for Educational Needs of Patients with type 2 diabetes
Abstract
Background: Patient education is recognized as the most important component of diabetes management. In order to develop an effective educational program, it is crucial to identify diabetic patients' information needs. Objective: This study aimed to systematically develop a weighted hierarchical topic model for the educational needs of patients with type 2 diabetes, based on the evidence. Methods: Three types of information sources (i.e. research papers, guidelines and patient education websites) were reviewed systematically. PubMed was searched in August 2018 to find the relevant research papers without any limitations on the date of publication, guidelines were searched through the international network of healthcare guidelines, and educational materials were searched through Google search engine. Identified topics from the eligible resources were classified using the content analysis method. To determine the level of importance for each topic, a weighting model was developed based on the frequency of each topic and the strength of the information sources that have referred to it. Results: In total, 142 papers were retrieved from PubMed database of which 17 studies were included. Searches for guidelines and websites led to five clinical guidelines for diabetes and ten patient educational websites that met the eligibility criteria. Topics were extracted from the included resources and were categorized into 6 main classes: Treatment process, course of disease, diabetes through the life cycle, pathophysiology of diabetes, coping and support. Conclusion: In this study, several information sources were investigated to identify educational topics for the diabetic patient, considering both patient’s and healthcare professionals' perspectives. The model created in this study can be adapted to the needs of future studies.
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