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Abstract
Information seeking and processing behaviors among people with type 2 diabetes about a drugs risk, such as rosiglitazone cardiovascular risk, motivated this dissertation. To my knowledge, this study was the first to investigate this issue in the context of a drug risk that was discovered after a FDA approved drug was widely prescribed to individuals. The main purpose of the study was to determine predictors of health information seeking and processing among people with type 2 diabetes in regard to rosiglitazones cardiovascular risk. The study seeks to accomplish this by applying the Risk Information Seeking and Processing model to a drug risk that was identified after the drug had been prescribed to millions of people. The study tested hypotheses regarding the relationship between information insufficiency (the difference between knowledge held and knowledge needed about the risk), channel beliefs (TV news, newspapers, magazines), perceived information gathering capacity and their seeking and processing of information on rosiglitazones cardiovascular risk. A quantitative online survey guided the data collection. A sample of 259 people with diabetes, provided by Qualtrics, was involved in the study. Respondents completed a questionnaire with items that were adapted from previously published studies using the Risk Information Seeking and Processing Model. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to analyze the data. The findings suggest that the Risk Information Seeking and Processing Model remains applicable to a newly discovered drug risk like that of rosiglitazone cardiovascular risk. The results revealed that channel beliefs and perceived information gathering capacity are promising cognitive factors that risk communicators can influence in an attempt to improve information seeking and processing.