Table 3.

Categories of online health information types sought across the included studies^a.

Category of information type	Description	Number of studies	Reported references
Self-management and lifestyle	Diet, nutrition, exercise, and stress management	28	[43,48-52,57,59,64,66,71,72,76,78,80,82,83,89,90,99-101,104, 105,107,108,111,112]
General diabetes	Information about disease knowledge, causes, and diagnosis	21	[43,47,52,58-60,66,67,70,71,73,76,81,83,90,93,95,97,98,104,112]
Treatment-related information	Medications, side effects, and alternative therapies	18	[43,51-53,59,62,64,66,67,71,76,78,82,83,90,95,97,101]
Symptoms and complications	Symptoms of diabetes and consequences of poor metabolic control	13	[43,59,66,71,76,83,89,90,95,97,101,108,112]
General health topics	Information about general health and wellness	12	[42,43,50,56,59,67,75,81,83,89,90,92]
Lived experiences and peer support	Lived experiences, second opinion, and personal advice from online peers	11	[52,63,65,66,68,76,78,80,83,107,111]
Diabetes device/technology	Blood glucose meter, insulin pump, and medical equipment	3	[43,78,82]
Other specific topics	Impact of diabetes on family life, sensitive health issues, COVID-19 information, and health care resources	4	[50,70,76,87]

^aOf the 81 included studies, 49 reported extractable data for this outcome. Categories are not mutually exclusive, and individual studies could report multiple information types.