Relationships Between Sources of Health Information and Diabetes Knowledge in the U.S. Hispanic Population

Abstract

Data from the 2007 Hispanic Healthcare Survey were analyzed to examine the relationship between health information use and diabetes knowledge in the U.S. Hispanic population. A nationally representative sample of 4,013 adults self-identified as Hispanics or Latinos was generated through stratified random digit dialing (RDD) and interviewed using Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI). Results showed that receiving health information from health care providers, family and friends, newspapers and magazines, and the Internet was positively associated with diabetes knowledge. Getting health information from churches and community organizations, however, was negatively associated with diabetes knowledge. Use of television as a source of health information showed mixed results. Implications of these findings for diabetes interventions targeting the Hispanic population in the United States are discussed.

Notes

¹ Hispanics or Latinos refer to an extremely diverse group of subpopulations and disagreement exists as to whether Hispanics and Latinos are exchangeable terms. This research is focused on the general Hispanic or Latino population. For the sake of simplicity, this general population is referred to as Hispanics in the remainder of the text.

² Some results from this survey have been published in the form of technical reports (e.g., Livingston, 2009; Livingston, Minushkin, & Cohn, 2008). In one report, the simple bivariate relationships between health information use from different sources and diabetes knowledge were presented (Livingston et al., 2008). However, these relationships were examined in isolation, without adjustments for each other or other potential confounders. The analysis presented here hopes to provide a clearer and more precise depiction of these relationships by using multivariate techniques with appropriate adjustments.