Barriers of obtaining health information among diabetes patients.

While healthcare information plays an essential role in the process of disease management, previous studies have shown that many patients may be unaware of the availability of certain healthcare information, thus leading to the progression of their diseases and deterioration of their health. This study explores the information seeking behaviors among patients with type-2 diabetes and explores the barriers that hinder effective healthcare information usages. 19 semi-structured interviews were carried out with patients and caregivers in various stages of diabetes disease management. Data analysis identified five major barriers for seeking health information: lack of motivation, passiveness, inconsistency of information, generality of information and loss of information. These findings call for the designing of active and personalized information delivery mechanisms.