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Background To be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes is a challenge for every patient. There are previous studies on patients’ experience in general but not addressing the increased cardiovascular risk and multifactorial treatment. The aim of this study was to explore the thoughts, experiences and reactions of newly diagnosed patients with diabetes to this diagnosis and to the risk of developing complications. Methods Ten adults (7 men/3 women, aged 50–79) diagnosed with type 2 diabetes within the last 12 months were interviewed at a primary health care center in Sweden. An interview guide was used in the semi-structured interviews that were transcribed verbatim. The analysis was qualitative and inspired by systematic text condensation (Malterud). The text was read several times and meaning units were identified. Related meaning units were sorted into codes and related codes into categories during several meetings between the authors. Finally, the categories were merged and formed themes. Results We defined three main themes: Reaction to diagnosis, Life changes and Concerns about the future. Most patients reacted to the diagnosis without intensive feelings. Lifestyle changes were mainly accepted but hard to achieve. The patients’ major concerns for the future were the consequences for daily life (being able to drive and read) and concerns for relatives rather than anxieties regarding medical issues such as laboratory tests. There were considerable differences in how much patients wanted to know about their future risks. Conclusions The results of this study might help to focus doctor-patient communication on issues highlighted by the patients and on the importance of individualizing information and recommendations for each patient. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12902-019-0380-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Purpose: The primary care physician's traditional patient contacts are challenged by the rapidly accelerating digital transformation. In a quantitative survey analysis based on the theory of planned behavior, we found high behavioral intention to use telemedicine among Swedish primary care physicians, but low reported use. The aim of this study was to further examine the physicians' experiences regarding telemedicine, with a focus on possible explanations for the gap between intention and use, through analysis of the free-text comments supplied in the survey. Material and Methods: The material was collected through a web-based survey which was sent out to physicians at 160 primary health care centers in southern Sweden from May to August 2019. The survey covered four areas: general experiences of telemedicine, digital contacts, chronic disease monitoring with digital tools, and artificial intelligence. A total of 100 physicians submitted one or more free-text comments. These were analyzed using qualitative content analysis with an inductive approach. Results: The primary care physicians expressed attitudes towards telemedicine that focused on clinical usefulness. Barriers to use were the loss of personal contact with patients and a deficient technological infrastructure. The major concerns were that these factors would result in patient harm and an increased workload. The connection between intention and use postulated by the theory of planned behavior was not applicable in this context, as external factors in the form of availability and clinical usefulness of the specific technology were major impediments to use despite a generally positive attitude. Conclusion: All telemedicine tools must be evaluated regarding clinical usefulness, patient safety, and effects on staff workload, and end users should be included in this process. Utmost consideration is needed regarding how to retain the benefits of personal contact between patient and provider when digital solutions are introduced.

Background: Research on intentions to use telemedicine in primary care is sparse. This survey study explored primary care physicians' intentions to use telemedicine by using a newly developed questionnaire: Physician Attitudes and Intentions to use Telemedicine. Methods: An anonymous web-survey with questions focusing on theory-based predictors of behavioral intentions such as Attitudes, Subjective norms and Perceived behavioral control was designed, validated, and sent to all primary care physicians at 160 primary health care centers in southern Sweden from May to August 2019. The questionnaire had 29 subject items (including 49 multiple-choice sub-items). Main outcome measures were intentions to use three domains of telemedicine and correlation between theory-based predictors and behavioral intentions for using telemedicine. Results: The survey was validated by an expert group, amended, and then tested and retested. A majority of the 198 physicians who returned the web-surveys reported that they did not use e-mails (68%), nor video consultations (78%), chat (81%), or text messages (86%) in their everyday patient work. Yet, most physicians described a positive intention to use telemedicine in patient care for all three studied domains with Attitudes and Perceived behavioral control being significant predictors (p<0.01) for Intentions to use digital contacts (R 2 = 0.54), chronic disease monitoring with digital tools (R 2 = 0.47) and artificial intelligence (R 2 = 0.54). A structural validation of a preliminary instrument -Physician Attitudes and Intention to use Telemedicine (PAIT) -containing 28 sub-items was done by exploratory factor analysis with acceptable explanatory, reliability and sampling adequacy measures. Five factors emerged with Eigenvalues between 1.6 and 11.1 explaining 72% of the variance. Total Cronbach's alpha was 0.91 and Kaiser-Meyer-Olkirk 0.79. Conclusion:Before the covid-19 pandemic, Swedish primary care physicians reported a low use yet high behavioral intention to use telemedicine in a study where we developed the preliminary instrument Physician Attitudes and Intention to use Telemedicine. Perceived behavioral control had the largest predictive value of behavioral intention to use telemedicine. Thus, interventions aiming to increase the use of digital tools in primary care should possibly focus on empowering physicians' self-efficacy towards using them.

Measurement of C-peptide concentration at diagnosis could help identify patients who are at high risk and who presumably would benefit from more intensive treatment.