Article Text
Abstract
Objective To assess the attitude of people living with type 1 diabetes toward the use of information and communication technology (ICT) to facilitate access to diabetes healthcare professionals (HCPs).
Research design and methods We conducted a cross-sectional online survey in two European tertiary diabetes care centers in London, UK, and Vienna, Austria, and from online diabetes platforms. Participants were asked about general options of online diabetes care and were presented with three scenarios (teleconference, online chat and telemonitoring of continuous glucose monitoring traces).
Results In total, 294 people (59% female; 78 British, 164 Austrians, 47 Germans, 5 from other countries; 45±15 years) who had been living with type 1 diabetes for 26±14.5 years participated. The vast majority of participants were insulin pump (and/or glucose sensor) users (84%) and reported good glycemic control (31% with hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) <7% and 51% with HbA1c 7%–8%). ICT was generally acceptable for counseling, with email/online messaging services and online health platform the most preferred options (74% and 53%). Study participants expressed a neutral to positive attitude toward the combined theme scores (relationship with HCP; confidence using technology; trust in data protection; intrusion of patient privacy; general acceptance of ICT in healthcare). UK participants showed more positive attitudes toward ICT across all theme scores than participants from Austria and Germany, but there were no gender-related differences.
Conclusions This online survey identified a highly ICT-astute group of people with type 1 diabetes, already using technology for insulin delivery, for whom online supported clinical diabetes care would be a viable and welcomed option.
- type 1
- clinical care
- patient-physician communication
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Footnotes
DH and SL contributed equally.
Contributors MS, DH and SL designed the study. MS, SL, DH and DJ designed the online survey. PC, HR and SH contributed to the data analysis and interpretation. IS-F and SL collected the data. DH and MS conducted the data analysis. DH, SL and MS wrote the manuscript, which was revised and edited by all authors.
Funding This work was supported by a summer studentship to SL and was funded by a poster prize awarded by King’s College London-Integrated Academic Training Programme to MS. MS’s salary is funded by the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) through a Clinician Scientist Fellowship award (CS-2017-17-023).
Competing interests None declared.
Patient consent for publication Not required.
Ethics approval This study was approved by the local ethical committees of the city of Vienna, Austria (EK 15–145-VK) and UK (EC 15/SC/0332), and conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Data availability statement All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as supplementary information.