Survey of Social Networking Site Use and Diabetes Self-care Behaviors

This survey is a part of a larger academic effort to study the benefits of online communities for people with diabetes. It’s main objectives are 1. to identify the factors that motivate patients to participate in online communities, and 2. to collect evidence on the time and effort that patients devote to the community.

If you are 18 years or older and diagnosed with Type 1, Type 2, or gestational diabetes, please click here to participate in a brief anonymous online survey.

The list of participating faculty can be found here: http://tedlappas.com/friends-co-authors/diabetes-survey​

Done. On the whole I thought the questions all made sense, but I always have trouble with ones like this:

When you have a question about your diabetes care, are you more likely to contact your health care provider or consult this website?

I think the only rational answer to that is “YES.” It’s one of those either-or questions about something that isn’t either-or. I’m “more likely” to ask something on an online forum than call my PCP or endocrinologist because I’m online all the time and only see my doctors a few times a year. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t pick up the phone in the case of something serious, and certainly I ask lots of questions during my appointments. But if I was pinging them with questions as often as I “consult” TUD they’d probably have a restraining order on me by now. I guess I just don’t know if the presumptions underlying the question are going to get them anything useful. If they asked would I rely on information from an online source more than from my specialist, that would seem more to the purpose. In my case the answer would be “No,” because I have a great relationship with my endo. Other people might answer differently, and that would actually be useful data. But I’m certainly more likely to “consult” online sources because who doesn’t?

There was no comment box at the end of the survey or I would have posted it there. Maybe you could pass my gripe along. Other than that it seemed like a good survey.

1 Like