The potential of the Internet for health communication: the use of an interactive on-line tool for diabetes risk prediction.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of the study is to assess the use of a web-based tool to calculate the 5-year risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus, the German Diabetes Risk Score (DRS), in a real-life setting.


METHODS
Recorded web server log information and user entered data (n=24,495) was analyzed. To distinguish information seeking behavior between high- and low-risk DRS records, a sub-sample was created to compare data entries of the highest and lowest risk quintile (n=5046). To learn more on the information seeking behavior of DRS users we created a dataset on the characteristics of those who calculate more than one DRS (n=11,902).


RESULTS
Most users (61%) entered the DRS without a referring website. Forty percent of users did not know their waist circumference. Visit duration among high-risk DRS records was almost 1.5 min longer compared to low-risk DRS records (p-value<0.001). Those who calculated multiple DRS were associated with a higher first DRS and male gender.


CONCLUSIONS
Understanding users' website utilization is an important step to evaluate risk calculator websites.


CONCLUSIONS
A range of media should be used conjointly to raise type 2 diabetes mellitus risk awareness. Risk websites should be linked to patient information pages.
Holmberg
Christine
C
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Berlin School of Public Health, Charite University Medical Center, Berlin, Germany. Christine.holmberg@charite.de
Harttig
Ulrich
U
Schulze
Matthias B
MB
Boeing
Heiner
H
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015992:Body Mass Index; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2; D005260:Female; D005544:Forecasting; D005858:Germany; D015438:Health Behavior; D058015:Health Communication / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D057226:Information Seeking Behavior; D020407:Internet / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D012307:Risk Factors; D017678:Sex Distribution; D055815:Young Adult