Self-management, health service use and information seeking for diabetes care among recent immigrants in Toronto.

Introduction: Our objective was to explore self-management practices, health services use and information-seeking for type 2 diabetes care among adult men and women from four recent immigrant communities in Toronto.

Methods: A structured questionnaire was adapted for the Canadian context and translated into 4 languages. A total of 184 participants with type 2 diabetes-130 recent immigrants and 54 Canadian-born-were recruited in both community and hospital settings.

Results: Recent immigrants were significantly less likely than the Canadian-born group to perform regular blood glucose and foot checks and significantly more likely than the Canadian-born group to be non-smokers, participate in regular physical activity and reduce dietary fat. Recent immigrants were significantly less likely than the Canadian-born group to use a specialist, alternative provider and dietician and less likely to report using dieticians, nurses and diabetes organizations as sources of diabetes-related information. Important differences were observed by sex and country of origin.

Conclusion: Findings suggest that diabetes prevention and management strategies for recent immigrants must address linguistic, financial, informational and systemic barriers to information and care.