University of Twente Student Theses
Lifestyle Counselling of People with Type 2 Diabetes and Low Health Literacy
Lieverse, F. (2023) Lifestyle Counselling of People with Type 2 Diabetes and Low Health Literacy.
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| Abstract: | In The Netherlands, 1.2 million people suffer from diabetes mellitus, with nine out of ten suffering from type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2). To reduce this disease’s side effects, a healthy lifestyle is essential. Therefore, supporting lifestyle self-management programs are being developed. However, not all of these programs are understandable for everyone. In The Netherlands, one out of four has low health literacy, meaning they struggle to access, comprehend, and implement health-related information. Consequently, they face challenges in controlling their blood glucose levels. This thesis tries to tackle this problem by answering the following research question: “How can a communication method be designed for a lifestyle self-management program for people who suffer from type 2 diabetes with low health literacy?”. To answer this question, background research, including literature research, state of the art and field research was conducted to gain an understanding of the problem. Thereafter, the Creative Technology Design Process, consisting of four phases, was followed in combination with a participatory design approach. In the ideation phase, a stakeholder analysis was conducted and the final concept was selected based on the results of the concept generation and a focus group. In the specification phase, functional and non-functional requirements were formulated. Additionally, the interaction and experience were investigated using an interaction diagram, personas and a design scenario. Also, behaviour change techniques (BCTs) were used to specify the content. In the realisation phase, the prototype was realised and an intermediate evaluation of the concept was conducted with three experts and a participant with low health literacy. Finally, the evaluation phase involved assessing the prototype’s functionality and usability through tasks, questionnaires, and interviews with two participants with low health literacy and an expert. Based on the four phases and inputs of experts and participants ‘Het DiaBoek’ was developed to initiate new behaviour regarding lifestyle, amongst people with DM2 and low health literacy. ‘Het DiaBoek’ is an interactive audiobook, which can read its contents out loud. These contents are designed by following communication strategies and address multiple aspects of DM2 and the importance of a healthy lifestyle. The final evaluation shows an overall positive response, with participants and experts acknowledging that the prototype is well-tailored to the needs of people with low health literacy. There is an overall consensus that the book is clear and easily understandable. However, there is still room for refinements. Future work could investigate improvements for the case (e.g., repositioning the buttons). Furthermore, it seems essential to conduct a longitudinal study with more participants who suffer from DM2 with low health literacy, to obtain more representative results. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Bachelor) |
| Faculty: | EEMCS: Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science |
| Subject: | 01 general works, 02 science and culture in general, 05 communication studies, 50 technical science in general, 70 social sciences in general |
| Programme: | Creative Technology BSc (50447) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/95873 |
| Export this item as: | BibTeX EndNote HTML Citation Reference Manager |
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