Managing personal health information in the home: Strategies of diabetes patients in the US and China

Abstract

People around the world have developed many strategies to thrive with diabetes by harnessing health information about themselves and the health condition in general. This study examines the information management strategies (i.e., what people do with the information they gathered) employed by diabetes patients and how these strategies help them reach their health outcome goals. We conducted semi-structured one-on-one interviews and photo-documentation with 52 people living with type 1 or type 2 diabetes in the US and in China. These participants introduced us to a wide variety of information management strategies that take advantage of space, people and technology. Many of these strategies involve intricate data mining, information visualization, space and technology connectivity management, artwork, and other skills and techniques that are not well supported by existing tools, services and the social contexts. Our findings suggest that the personal information management activities observed in previous studies are not independent of one another. Strategies, or a personalized collection of information management activities and information items, can be just as important as their individual parts. Also, US participants reported performing different strategies at different frequencies compared to their Chinese counterparts, supporting that social contexts can influence how people manage their information. These findings can point to important directions of future developments in technology and health care services, as well as their application in various social contexts.