Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Feb 11, 2019
Date Accepted: Apr 8, 2019
The Use of Electronic Health and Impact on Doctor Visiting Decisions among People with Diabetes: Cross-sectional study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Despite the increasing prevalence of diabetes and the increasing use of electronic health (eHealth) among people with diabetes, little is known about the association between the use of eHealth and the use of provider-based health services. This study is a part of the DIAcare project exploring these relations.
Objective:
The objective of this study was to investigate whether the use of eHealth might change patients’ decisions regarding doctor seeking behaviour, and whether information acquired from the internet was discussed with a doctor.
Methods:
We used e-mail survey data conducted in 2018 from members of The Norwegian Diabetes Association (18 to 89 years) diagnosed with diabetes. Using logistic regressions, we studied patients’ internet-triggered changes of decisions regarding doctor visits, whether they discussed information from the internet with a doctor, and whether these topics were associated with gender, age, education, self-rated health, and self-reported anxiety/depression.
Results:
Among the 895 informants, 75.4% (645/856) had never made an internet-triggered change of decision in any direction regarding visiting a doctor, whereas 16.4% (41/859) had decided to visit and 17.3% (148/856) had decided not to visit. The probability of changing decisions decreased with higher age and increased with the severity of self-reported anxiety/depression. Around half of the study participants (52.2%, 448/858) had never discussed information from the internet with a doctor. The probability of discussing internet information with a doctor was higher for those in bad/very bad self-rated health (OR 2.12, CI 1.15-3.90) and for those with moderate self-reported anxiety/depression (OR 2.30, CI 1.30-4.10).
Conclusions:
Our findings suggest that using eHealth seems to have a significant impact on doctor visiting decisions among people with diabetes, and in particular among people aged 18-39 years and among those reporting anxiety/depression. It is of great importance that the information posted is of high quality and that the large differences between the internet-users regarding age and mental and somatic health status is taken into account. More research is needed in order to confirm and further explore the findings of this study.
Citation
