Identifying Barriers and Motivators in Diabetic Eye Examination to Design Medical Screening Systems

Abstract

Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) is the main contributor to adult blindness in America. When detected on time, treatment can avoid severe sight loss 95% of the time (Fong et al., 2004). However, only 50% of people with diabetes get screened yearly, making early intervention difficult (Lee, et al., 2003). There is a need to understand how the systems for DR screenings can be designed to comply with the patient's needs, for which it is necessary to understand the user and the factors that affect their behavior. We created a questionnaire from barriers and motivators found in interviews with persons with diabetes regarding their yearly screenings (Salas, et.al., 2022) based on Ajzen’s (2006a) Constructing a Theory of Planned Behavior Questionnaire. The questionnaire measured the influence of attitudes, social norms, and perceived control on screening for DR. This study will add to the current body of literature by helping to identify where to focus efforts when creating systems for DR screening.