Ralph Jason S Li
Philippine General Hospital, Philippines
Posters-Accepted Abstracts: J Diabetes Metab
Various studies1,2,3 show that patients with gestational diabetes mellitus(GDM) have increased anxiety from various sources. However, studies showed that patients are hesitant to give information during consult4. Thus, content analysis of blogs by GDM patients is helpful in elucidating the anxieties/dissatisfactions that patients are hesitant to divulge to their physicians. This study determined the sources of anxiety/dissatisfaction of GDM patients by content analysis of their blogs shared within tweets with #Gestationaldiabetes from 2006 to July 2015.This study involved 3 phases. The first is an online search of blogs of GDM patients followed by characterization of the bloggers and the blogs. The last phase is content analysis of blogs to determine the sources of anxiety/dissatisfaction. Fifty-six blogs were included. Most of the bloggers were from the USA(70%), were in the 3rd trimester when blog was written(32%), and were on diet only treatment(59%). Most blogs expressed negative sentiment(54%). The most common source of anxiety/dissatisfaction is symptoms/side effects(18.96%), followed by treatment(18.25%). Sub-analysis of the sources of anxiety/dissatisfaction by region showed that the most common are treatment(20.07%), symptoms/side effects(18.89%), and treatment(28.57%) in North America, Europe, and Australia/Asia, respectively. Sub-analysis by type of treatment showed that the most common sources are disease notification(16.30%), anxiety/dissatisfaction not otherwise specified(27.37%), and treatment(34.21%) for those on diet alone, on diet+oral hypoglycemic agent, and on diet+insulin, respectively.This study provides insight into the different sources of anxiety and dissatisfaction in GDM patients through blogs. Regional and treatment type differences in the main sources of anxiety/dissatisfaction occur in GDM patients.
Ralph Jason S. Li has completed his Degree in Medicine at the age of 24 years from Cebu Doctors’ University in Cebu City, Philippines. He graduated from Internal Medicine residency training at the Philippine General Hospital in Manila, Philippine. He is currently a fellow in training at the Section of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Department of Medicine at the Philippine General Hospital.
Email: ralphjasonsiali@yahoo.com
