scholarly journals Type ll Diabetic Patients’ Attitudes Toward Influenza and Covid-19 Vaccination

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. A351-A352
Author(s):  
Reisa Gilfix ◽  
Jack Elstein ◽  
Eleanor Elstein

Abstract Influenza vaccination (fluv) is free and easily accessible to diabetics in Quebec. The importance of vaccination (v) during the Covid19 (CV19) pandemic has been widely discussed in the media. To ascertain the receptiveness of type 2 diabetics (T2D) to fluv during the CV19 pandemic and their acceptance of an eventual CV19 vaccine (CVv) we carried out telephone interviews with 34 unselected T2D pts in Montreal, Quebec post the 1st wave of CV19 in that region. Pts were asked if they planned taking the fluv and/or an eventual CVv, reasons for reticence to v, and attitudes toward and compliance with public health (PH) directives. They were also asked their primary source of health related information. Recent HbA1c and insulin use were recorded. Thirty four T2Ds were surveyed, 22 M 50–87 yrs (mean 69.2) and 12 F 49–84 yrs (mean 68.8). Eleven M and 5 F were on insulin. HbA1c ranged from 5.9–13.0 (mean 7.3). None of the pts had recently discussed v with a healthcare provider (HCP). One pt received his health related information from Facebook, the others from mainstream media. None had contraindications to v. None had been diagnosed with CV19. Past influenza history was unknown. Forty one percent (14/34) of pts, 11 M 50–86 yrs (mean 66.0) and 3 F 49–66 yrs (mean 59.0) did not plan to take the fluv. They explained their decisions as never having taken fluv (12 pts) or having been ill despite having taken it (2 pts). Neither accessibility nor cost were issues. Two F, 62 and 66 yrs, who refused fluv also refused CVv. Six M aged 60–86 yrs (mean 70.5) and 1 F aged 73 yrs were planning to wait to access real life safety (6pts) or efficacy (1pt) data before accepting CVv. All pts claimed to be following PH guidelines including social distancing, hand washing, and mask recommendations; 91.2% (31/34) fully agreed with PH policies, 2 were in moderate agreement and 1 thought PH policy was not strict enough. Of the latter 3 pts none planned on taking the fluv. One planned taking the CVv, 1 planned not to, and the 3rd planned to wait before deciding. Despite a long history of use, recommendations by experts, and free and easy accessibility, T2D pts questioned after the 1st wave of CV19 are not convinced of the fluv’s importance. Despite high case numbers and being themselves at high risk, not all T2Ds are willing to unequivocally accept a potential Health Canada sanctioned CVv. This study underlines the important work HCPs have ahead in educating and reassuring pts with regard to vaccination.

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 118-128
Author(s):  
Siti Zuhaida Hussein ◽  
Chung Hong Chuo ◽  
Fawwaz Mohd Said ◽  
Khairunnisa Tumingan ◽  
Nurshalin Sahar Shah ◽  
...  

Background: Diabetes mellitus has become a major public health problem globally. Social media could be useful in assisting clinical practice and sharing health-related information to improve self-management and to promote a positive behavioural change. This study aims to develop a guide on the best online tools by determining the media preference reflected by health- related information received from social media amongst diabetic patients in Hospital Canselor Tuanku Muhriz (HCTM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. Methods: This study was conducted cross-sectional on 174 respondents, who were selected by using a simple random sampling method. Socio-demographic data and the use of the internet and media for health-related information were obtained via questionnaires. Results: The most preferred social media used for searching and sharing health-related information was WhatsApp (73.6%), followed by Facebook (67.8%), Instagram (18.4%) and Twitter (17.2%). The social media preference related to socio-demographic data of age was statistically significant (P < 0.002), which had a medium effect. Furthermore, the media preference was not significantly related to health-related information searched or shared on social media and the frequency of usage. Conclusion: Indeed, the social media have been an essential media platform to enhance public awareness concerning public health. This calls for evolution to further enhance the use of social media amongst healthcare practitioners to emphasise health promotion and empower the patients to play an active role in their healthcare. This study provides a guideline for the medical researchers, practitioners or healthcare providers in choosing WhatsApp as an online medium to communicate with diabetic patients in the future, specifically in Malaysia.


2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (6) ◽  
pp. 621-631 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roofia Galeshi ◽  
Jyotsna Sharman ◽  
Jinghong Cai

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand the behavior diversities that exist among young millennials’ subgroups in ways they seek health-related information. Design/methodology/approach The authors ran several sets of analyses on the 2012–2014 US Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) Data using Stata. The population was stratified into four specific subgroups based on their gender, ethnicity—blacks, Hispanics and whites—immigration status, college status—whether they were enrolled in a program of study at the time of the survey. The outcome variables were sources of health information including print (books/magazines/brochures), traditional media (Radio/TV), internet, family/friends/co-workers and health professionals. The independent variables were gender, ethnicity, educational status and immigration status. The authors utilized the appropriate sample weight derived by Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development so the findings can be generalized to the populations. The analysis included several descriptive statistics and χ2 test of independence. Findings Despite similarities, young adults’ health seeking behavior is complex influenced by gender, ethnicity, immigration status and education. The results indicated that while the internet is the primary source of health-related information for all young adults, there are subtle differences in utilizing other available resources. For example while more educated young adults seek help from their family members, the less educated peers use the media to obtain health-related information. Ethnicity has also an effect on young adults’ information seeking behavior. The number of Hispanics and blacks that obtain their information from traditional media is significantly higher than their white counterparts. Research limitations/implications This study has several limitations. First, the authors did not consider the effect of young adults’ digital literacy skills, problem solving skills and numeracy skills on their health seeking approach. Including these cognitive skills could reveal key information about young adults approach to information seeking that is not apparent by race, ethnicity and gender only. Another limitation of this study is the lack of the ability to claim causation, PIAAC data are designed strictly for cross-sectional analysis. Practical implications Although, behaviors often do not change simply by presenting information, trying to change behavior without improving individuals’ understanding of the issue by providing accurate information is likely to fail. Providing standardized health-related information sources that are accessible to all is vitally important. The results indicate that while the majority of young adults use the internet as their primary source of information only a few percentage of young adults seek information from health professional. Consequently, there is a need for an easily accessible and standardized online health-related source of information. Social implications Healthcare facilities and health related industries have the resources and the ability to develop a reliable infrastructure that could potentially provide reliable information that is easy to understand and navigate for adults with a variety of literacy and skills to use. Perhaps adopting the Universal Design for Learning approach and providing information that is accessible to a variety of individuals regardless of their education, learning skills and language skills. Flexible learning resources provided within a standard infrastructure accessible to all can help individuals find trustworthy and consistent information that they can trust. Originality/value Despite the unique characteristics of the millennials and the profound change in the way young adults seek information, there is a paucity of research on the ways young adults seek health-related information. Most existing literature is based on locally developed surveys and convenient sampling with limited reliability and validity information. Consequently making a sweeping statement based on their findings is considered as hasty generalization. The PIAAC, on the other hand, is a nationally representative data, extensively examined for its validity and reliability.


Author(s):  
Shruti Kohli ◽  
Sonia Saini

Recent work in machine learning and natural language processing has studied the content of health related information in tweets and demonstrated the potential for extracting useful public health information from their aggregation. Social intelligence derived from health content has become of significant importance for various applications, including post-marketing drug surveillance, competitive intelligence, medicine reviews and to assess health-related opinions and sentiments. Further, the quantity of medical information in the media such as tweets on Twitter, Facebook or medical blogs is growing at an exponential rate. Medical data such as health records, drug data, etc. has become major candidates for Big Data analysis and thus exploring this content has become a necessity for organizations. However, the volume, velocity, variety, and quality of online health information present challenges, necessitating enhanced facilitation mechanisms for medical social computing. The objective of this chapter is to discuss the possibility of mining medical trends using Social Networks.


2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 194-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dina Demner-Fushman ◽  
Yassine Mrabet ◽  
Asma Ben Abacha

Abstract Objective Consumers increasingly turn to the internet in search of health-related information; and they want their questions answered with short and precise passages, rather than needing to analyze lists of relevant documents returned by search engines and reading each document to find an answer. We aim to answer consumer health questions with information from reliable sources. Materials and Methods We combine knowledge-based, traditional machine and deep learning approaches to understand consumers’ questions and select the best answers from consumer-oriented sources. We evaluate the end-to-end system and its components on simple questions generated in a pilot development of MedlinePlus Alexa skill, as well as the short and long real-life questions submitted to the National Library of Medicine by consumers. Results Our system achieves 78.7% mean average precision and 87.9% mean reciprocal rank on simple Alexa questions, and 44.5% mean average precision and 51.6% mean reciprocal rank on real-life questions submitted by National Library of Medicine consumers. Discussion The ensemble of deep learning, domain knowledge, and traditional approaches recognizes question type and focus well in the simple questions, but it leaves room for improvement on the real-life consumers’ questions. Information retrieval approaches alone are sufficient for finding answers to simple Alexa questions. Answering real-life questions, however, benefits from a combination of information retrieval and inference approaches. Conclusion A pilot practical implementation of research needed to help consumers find reliable answers to their health-related questions demonstrates that for most questions the reliable answers exist and can be found automatically with acceptable accuracy.


2011 ◽  
pp. 1485-1494
Author(s):  
Sherrie D. Cannoy

A large number of patients currently utilize the Internet to access healthcare-related information (Tobin, 2002). Many physician and health-related Web sites have been information portals lacking interactive services that could benefit healthcare partners through decreased costs, increased convenience, and communication. Patients typically visit Web portals to learn more about medical topics, often discussing this information with physicians. Emerging Internet technologies can be a strategic asset for hospitals to impact physician bonding, patient self-service, and overall enterprise performance efforts. We conducted an investigation of Web sites of 10 hospitals listed in U.S. News and World Report’s Best Hospitals of 2004 Honor Roll, as well as a random selection of seven other hospital sites. An examination of each hospital’s site was performed to determine what features were provided to enhance communication between the partners in healthcare. Partners are defined as patients and their families, referring physicians, insurance companies, vendors, pharmacies, job seekers, and the media. Communication-enhancing features are any features that have the potential to increase communication between the hospital and its partners. We focused on patient communication-enhancing features, since patients are the primary partners of healthcare entities.


Author(s):  
Nur Emine Koç ◽  
Asena Tunalı

Violence is a problematic phenomenon that has a global impact on both individuals and societies. From the reporting aspect of the news to the composition of television programs, violence has taken over the media. Considering the forms of violence in both social media and mainstream media, the use of language is observed to resemble a favor to the ones who commit these acts of violence, not the ones who are subject to it. Accessibility of the events occurring at any given moment within or outside of the border of individuals and the changing realities is a necessity. All these changes in our daily lives cause paradigm shifts, change the way we live, act, or understand for better or for worse as we are exposed. Media and the news, the prominent mediums of this exposure to life, manifest our current way of thinking and also play a significant role in creating the mindset that is determined to have been socially down the line. In this study, femicide cases that have drawn attention, under the spotlight of mainstream media and social media journalism from 2009 to 2020, providing a platform for individuals to report real-life events amateurly, and adopted the use of language by mainstream media and social media journalists, will be analyzed using content analysis method. Moreover, changes in the use of language adopted by mainstream media and the effects of these uses in the scope of the way we live, act, or understand will be argued.


Author(s):  
Lei Yang ◽  
Yuping Mao ◽  
Jeroen Jansz

The Chinese Hui ethnic minority group is an Islamic minority. The Hui people comprise the third largest minority population in China and are widely distributed throughout the country. Previous research shows that the Hui had a higher prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors (CVRFs) than most other ethnic groups. Therefore, the availability of health information relating to these factors is especially important for the Hui minority’s preventive healthcare. They do, however, experience difficulties in obtaining health-related information. The current research aims to identify the needs of the Hui people on where and how they obtain cardiovascular disease (CVD) related information from the media and other sources. Six focus groups were conducted in Shenyang City. The results revealed that the participants relied on different sources to get advice about CVDs, of which the internet and television were the most prominent ones. The participants expressed a desire for credible and professional information from different sources and asked for mediated health communication programs specifically targeted at the Hui. In addition, the participants felt ignored by the Chinese mainstream media at large, which created barriers for them to get health information.


1998 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valerie J. MacKinnon

A qualitative needs analysis, undertaken with 33 older Italian-Australians living in Ascot Vale, identified a number of language related difficulties that had actual or potential health consequences. Indeed health services utilisation was a problem for most participants and although they all attended a general practitioner, there was usually little or no contact with agencies that provide home care, support or health enhancing information, either because of a lack of awareness on the part of participants or because they believed the services were linguistically (or culturally) inappropriate. Language support, at best, was provided by family members because the health interpreter service was rarely used. The findings suggest a lack of structural and practitioner commitment to addressing the language needs of LOTE immigrants, especially: the current financial and administrative disincentives to community based practitioners using the health interpreter services; an apparent lack of commitment on the part of health workers to use the health interpreter services; and a failure to develop mechanisms for providing them with health related information. It appears that the equity debates of the 1970s that focused on language barriers should be revisited, because the findings of this study suggest language competence is a necessary prerequisite to these older participants effectively accessing health related information or services, or participating, either individually or collectively, in the planning or implementation of their health care.


Author(s):  
Sherrie D. Cannoy ◽  
Lakshmi Iyer

A large number of patients currently utilize the Internet to access healthcare-related information (Tobin, 2002). Many physician and health-related Web sites have been information portals lacking interactive services that could benefit healthcare partners through decreased costs, increased convenience, and communication. Patients typically visit Web portals to learn more about medical topics, often discussing this information with physicians. Emerging Internet technologies can be a strategic asset for hospitals to impact physician bonding, patient self-service, and overall enterprise performance efforts. We conducted an investigation of Web sites of 10 hospitals listed in U.S. News and World Report’s Best Hospitals of 2004 Honor Roll, as well as a random selection of seven other hospital sites. An examination of each hospital’s site was performed to determine what features were provided to enhance communication between the partners in healthcare. Partners are defined as patients and their families, referring physicians, insurance companies, vendors, pharmacies, job seekers, and the media. Communication-enhancing features are any features that have the potential to increase communication between the hospital and its partners. We focused on patient communication-enhancing features, since patients are the primary partners of healthcare entities.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 104-114
Author(s):  
James Kimani Kuria

The study sought to analyse the efficiency of Farm Concern International’s Communication strategies in promoting the commercialisation of African Indigenous Vegetables in Lari Sub-County, Kenya. Qualitative and quantitative research designs were adopted for the study and purposive sampling, followed by random sampling used to select 100 farmers from the five villages in Lari Sub County. The data was gathered from the primary source through the use of structured questionnaire for both quantitative and qualitative. The data was then processed and presented by the use of graphs, tables and pie charts and analysed by use of descriptive analysis. The study used two theories, Rational Argumentation Theory propounded by Cragan and Shields (1998) and Trans theoretical Model (TM) by Prochaska, Johnson and Lee (1998). The study established that the rate of commercialisation is currently high, with the majority of farmers earning between sh. 5, 000 to sh. 15, 000 per month. Majority of farmers sold AIVs to Uchumi Supermarket. The findings also indicated that FCI majorly used two forms of Ora-Media, barazas and demonstrations, to promote production, consumption and commercialisation of AIVs. However, a bit of Use of projector was also used, but no form of mainstream media or internet and drama was used. The study recommends that NGOs should liaise with financial institutions to train farmers on financial literacy and facilitate them to make savings to enhance production. Also, there is a need for more campaign by NGOs and other gatekeepers like the media, government leaders and local leaders to enhance increased production of AIVs.


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