Status and influencing factors of diabetes information acquisition among rural elderly with pre-diabetes in Yiyang City, China: a cross-sectional study

Objective This study was designed to investigate the status of diabetes information acquisition and its influencing factors among patients, 60 years and older, with pre-diabetes in rural China. Design This is a cross-sectional study. Setting The survey was conducted in 42 rural communities in Yiyang City, Hunan Province, China. Participants A total of 461 elderly with pre-diabetes participated in this study, and 434 of them completed the survey (434/461, 94.1%). Outcome measures Information on sociodemographic and diabetic information-seeking behaviours were assessed through the structured questionnaires and described by percentages, mean +/- SD. The influencing factors of diabetes information acquisition were analysed using multiple linear regression analysis. Results The average score of diabetes information acquisition in the subjects was 8.39 +/- 11.28. The most popular and trusted source of diabetes information for the subjects was doctors. The level of information acquisition not only declined as the age progressed (95% CI -3.754 to -0.143) but also proved lowest among subjects with less than 1 year of education (95% CI 0.756 to 4.326). In addition, the level of information acquisition among elderly individuals with pre-diabetes, but with no history of hyperglycaemia, was lower than among those with a history of hyperglycaemia (95% CI 3.398 to 11.945). Conclusions These data indicated that the lack of ability to acquire diabetes information in elderly with pre-diabetes was common in rural China. Improving the ability of rural residents to access information should be incorporated into rural diabetes prevention efforts, especially for the elderly with pre-diabetes with low education and no history of hyperglycaemia.