University of Utah College of Nursing, 10 South 2000 East, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA.
Patient Educ Couns. 2018 Mar;101(3):518-523. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2017.08.023. Epub 2017 Sep 6.
The use of the diabetes online community (DOC) is growing across all age groups. The aim of this exploratory study was to describe why older adults participated in the DOC, and how DOC users interacted with their healthcare providers.
Telephone interviews (N=20) were conducted with older adult DOC users (born between 1946 and 1964) living in the United States. Interviews were analyzed using qualitative content analysis adhering to rigor and reproducibility standards.
Themes that emerged from the data related to DOC participation included: information to improve self-care, emotional support, belonging to a community, validation of information, cause for concern and interaction with healthcare providers. Participants used the DOC for day to day diabetes management advice and healthcare providers for medical information and care.
Participants highly valued the DOC and regarded their participation as a way to increase knowledge to improve self-care and reciprocate emotional support with others for diabetes management. The DOC filled gaps in knowledge and support participants were not able to get elsewhere.
The DOC serves as an important source of information and support for individuals with diabetes and may be a cost-effective strategy to augment standard diabetes care.
糖尿病在线社区（DOC）在各年龄段的使用量都在增长。本探索性研究旨在描述为什么老年人会参与 DOC，以及 DOC 用户如何与他们的医疗保健提供者互动。
对居住在美国的老年 DOC 用户（出生于 1946 年至 1964 年之间）进行了电话访谈（N=20）。访谈使用定性内容分析进行分析，遵循严谨性和可重复性标准。
从数据中出现的主题与 DOC 的参与有关，包括：改善自我护理的信息、情感支持、归属感、信息验证、关注原因和与医疗保健提供者的互动。参与者使用 DOC 来获取日常糖尿病管理建议，而使用医疗保健提供者来获取医疗信息和护理。
参与者高度重视 DOC，并将其参与视为增加知识以改善自我护理和回馈他人情感支持的一种方式，以管理糖尿病。DOC 填补了参与者无法从其他地方获得的知识和支持的空白。
DOC 是糖尿病患者的重要信息和支持来源，可能是增强标准糖尿病护理的一种具有成本效益的策略。
