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.Keywords: Information Avoidance; Health Information Avoidance; Health Information Behavior; Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus 【摘要】隨著健康資訊取得便利，大眾健康自主權提升，健康資訊尋求被視為一個普遍的現象，但健康資訊迴避卻甚少被大眾所察覺，慢性疾病患者因接觸健康資訊頻率較高，對資訊的接受或迴避更易影響患者的醫療決策和健康維持。本研究以第二型糖尿病患者為研究對象，透過關鍵事件訪談法蒐集資料，共訪談10位患者，藉由健康資訊迴避事件探究患者的健康資訊迴避行為、原因，以及減少迴避行為之契機，並整理出一個健康資訊迴避行為框架。最後提出實務建議供醫療照護單位參考，期能減少患者因迴避健康資訊而延誤治療的情況發生，進一步提醒大眾檢視自身的健康資訊行為。關鍵字：資訊迴避、健康資訊迴避、健康資訊行為、第二型糖尿病