Diabetes Digital Outcomes Study
The Diabetes Digital Outcomes Study is a research study and benchmarking project from the Digital Health Coalition and Klick.
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Klick Health, along with the Digital Health Coalition and Google, conducted a survey online and via telephone of 2,000 diabetes patients to find out how they use digital to manage their condition. The findings can also be used by brand managers dealing with many other chronic conditions as the diabetic population is reasonably representative of the total US population.
The #LIVINGBETTER study found that of the 18% of chronic patients who frequently use digital technologies for health reasons, 70% define the state of their health as good, very good, or excellent – even though 43% admitted to visiting a hospital emergency room in the last six months and 32% were hospitalized for at least one night.
In comparison, digitally inactive patients, which represent 35% of those surveyed, said they were in similar health but only 20% of them went to the ER and only 11% were hospitalized over the same time period.
Some of the findings:
- 18% go online daily or weekly to integrate digital technologies that help manage their health (Integrators)
- 47% use the Internet on a monthly basis to seek health information (Seekers)
- 35% don’t go online for health reasons, saying they manage their health in strictly non-digital, traditional ways (Traditionalists)
Chronic disease patients over-index for social platforms, for example 38% use forums to manage their condition vs. 20% of Americans who use forums (for all reasons). Also, the study broke out the 19% of respondents who use mobile devices for health. Of this group:
- 80% are interested in getting health apps from their doctors
- 75% would use apps to connect with their doctors
- 78% are open to sharing their health data with their doctors
- 66% (approx.) want to use apps to remind them to take their medicine