A Study on Information Seeking Methods of Dialysis Patients in Kerman in 2015: A Short Report

Patients can have an important role in the treatment of their disease with improving their information about it. Dialysis patients are among patients that their treatment period will be long. Therefore, the acquisition of information and improvement of the health literacy can help them to control their disease. There are different methods for information seeking. This study was carried out in order to study information seeking methods of dialysis patients in Kerman.
This cross-sectional study was conducted on 210 dialysis patients in Kerman in 2015. Data were collected using a researcher made questionnaire that was contained 17 questions and distributed among convienience samples. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and chi- square test.
The results showed that following the diagnosis of the disease 84.8% (n=178) of dialysis patients tried to enhance their knowledge about their disease. Among those patinets who increased their knowelege, the majority (92.7%, n=165) increased their health knowledge about the causes of their disease. From the view point of all patients, physicians were the best source for knowledge acquisition. There was a significant relationship between level of education and information seeking (p=0.001).
The results showed that,due to the patients’ low level of health literacy and their being middle-aged they prefer to obtain knowledge from physicians. Therefore, it is recommended that proper information resources be provided for this group of patients considering their Conditions.