Feedback Requested! UofT Diabetes Project

[uoftuserneeds]

Hello,

I am a student from the University of Toronto. My project is to create a prototype cellphone app to help individuals manage type 2 diabetes. First, I am conducting a user needs assessment. Your input would be valuable to help create a useful management tool and it would be greatly appreciated! I have questions below if you would be so kind to answer:

1. How old are you?

2. In which year were you first diagnosed with type 2 diabetes?

3. Do you currently smoke cigarettes? If yes - how long have you been smoking?

4. List way(s) in which you are currently managing your condition?

5. List any challenges associated with your condition

6. How do you measure your blood glucose levels?

7. How often do you measure your blood glucose level?

8. Do you record your blood glucose values? If yes, please indicate the method(s) used to record. (Example: pen and paper, cellphone app, etc.)

9. How often per month do you visit a primary care family physician?

10. How supportive is your family of your condition?

11. List ways in which your family helps support you with your condition (Example: helps measure blood glucose level, helps buy groceries specific to diabetic diet, etc.)

12. Other - Please provide any other information you feel would be valuable

Again, thank you for your help!
-Ben

 

[Bluetit1802]

This is a public forum that can be read by anybody, not just registered members.
I doubt most of us would feel comfortable answering your questions.
There are websites that you can use to do surveys. Maybe use one of those?

 

[LittleGreyCat]

Possibly difficult question:
"9. How often per month do you visit a primary care family physician?"
Do you want your answer in decimal or fractions?
Most well controlled T2 diabetics have a review every 6 months to a year.
Possibly better to ask how many times a year.

 

[uoftuserneeds]

Thank you for the feedback! If you feel comfortable you can send responses to my private message. I will also blur out user names to be anonymous

 

[LittleGreyCat]

Survey Monkey is one site where you can construct a survey.

It would also be good if you could show some proof that you are really a student including details of your supervisor and email addresses for confirmation. Making these available to participants via Personal Messages should avoid putting them straight on SPAM lists although I expect your email addresses at the University may well already be visible.

I assume that you have searched the Internet to confirm that there aren't competing Apps which already address the issue.

Edit: you could always ask that in the survey - and be prepared to find out that people are already using Apps to manage their T2 and don't need yet another one. That is all part of requirements capture.

 

[Deleted member 308541]

1. How old are you? 73

2. In which year were you first diagnosed with type 2 diabetes? Four years

3. Do you currently smoke cigarettes? If yes - how long have you been smoking? No

4. List way(s) in which you are currently managing your condition? Diet and medication

5. List any challenges associated with your condition N/A

6. How do you measure your blood glucose levels? With a meter

7. How often do you measure your blood glucose level? Fasting, before and after meals

8. Do you record your blood glucose values? If yes, please indicate the method(s) used to record. (Example: pen and paper, cellphone app, etc.) Android app

9. How often per month do you visit a primary care family physician? Every two months approx

10. How supportive is your family of your condition? My partner eats low carb high fat as well.

11. List ways in which your family helps support you with your condition (Example: helps measure blood glucose level, helps buy groceries specific to diabetic diet, etc.) They do not help as I am fully in command of my faculties

12. Other - Please provide any other information you feel would be valuable Get on with living

Now that the ice is broken go for it...

 

[uoftuserneeds]

1. How old are you? 73

2. In which year were you first diagnosed with type 2 diabetes? Four years

3. Do you currently smoke cigarettes? If yes - how long have you been smoking? No

4. List way(s) in which you are currently managing your condition? Diet and medication

5. List any challenges associated with your condition N/A

6. How do you measure your blood glucose levels? With a meter

7. How often do you measure your blood glucose level? Fasting, before and after meals

8. Do you record your blood glucose values? If yes, please indicate the method(s) used to record. (Example: pen and paper, cellphone app, etc.) Android app

9. How often per month do you visit a primary care family physician? Every two months approx

10. How supportive is your family of your condition? My partner eats low carb high fat as well.

11. List ways in which your family helps support you with your condition (Example: helps measure blood glucose level, helps buy groceries specific to diabetic diet, etc.) They do not help as I am fully in command of my faculties

12. Other - Please provide any other information you feel would be valuable Get on with living

Now that the ice is broken go for it...

Thank you Tipetoo, I appreciate it!

 

[uoftuserneeds]

attached is proof I am a student

 

[Deleted member 308541]

Thank you Tipetoo, I appreciate it!

You're welcome.

 

[LittleGreyCat]

attached is proof I am a student

Sadly, this isn't really proof as it doesn't give an email address that can be used to confirm that the redacted piece of non-specific letter head even belongs to you. To be clear, I get a lot of SPAM email generated by people who give my email address when signing up to sites on the Internet. This is why most reputable sites have a clear process where they don't believe the email address until after they have sent a challenge to the email address and received the correct response.

We do get requests for assistance with research from time to time, and usually in the UK we get the contact details from the researcher, and also contact details from the research supervisor, and a copy of the research proposal and of the data protection policy.

I'm not doubting that you are a student trying to use the Internet as a way of gathering some information for a project.

I'm just pointing out that there is the chance that you may not be (we do get the occasional poster who turns out not to be as described) so it is polite to provide a verifiable background.

I am not an expert in Data Protection legislation, and this is a public forum anyway, but you should perhaps check that you are not in danger of falling foul of any of the increasingly draconian privacy legislation.

 

[Chocomin]

I agree with LittleGreyCat. Also you may fall foul of your university's ethics committee if you submit your results and they found out you didn't talk to them before doing this! Why not have an informal chat with friends and family to find out views instead?

 

[LittleGreyCat]

Just to highlight this (OP seems to have gone away).
See https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/survey-on-type-2-diabetes-for-a-project.135735/ which includes a Data Protection statement and the name and contact details for the Data Controller.