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Online Health Information–Seeking Among Older Women With Chronic Illness: Analysis of the Women’s Health Initiative

BACKGROUND: Understanding how older patients with chronic illnesses use the internet to obtain health information is relevant for the design of digital interventions aimed at improving the health and well-being of adults aged 65 years and older; this cohort represents the sickest, most expensive, an...

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Autores principales: Sedrak, Mina S, Soto-Perez-De-Celis, Enrique, Nelson, Rebecca A, Liu, Jennifer, Waring, Molly E, Lane, Dorothy S, Paskett, Electra D, Chlebowski, Rowan T
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: JMIR Publications 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7319595/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32271152
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/15906
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author Sedrak, Mina S
Soto-Perez-De-Celis, Enrique
Nelson, Rebecca A
Liu, Jennifer
Waring, Molly E
Lane, Dorothy S
Paskett, Electra D
Chlebowski, Rowan T
author_facet Sedrak, Mina S
Soto-Perez-De-Celis, Enrique
Nelson, Rebecca A
Liu, Jennifer
Waring, Molly E
Lane, Dorothy S
Paskett, Electra D
Chlebowski, Rowan T
author_sort Sedrak, Mina S
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Understanding how older patients with chronic illnesses use the internet to obtain health information is relevant for the design of digital interventions aimed at improving the health and well-being of adults aged 65 years and older; this cohort represents the sickest, most expensive, and fastest-growing segment of the US population. OBJECTIVE: The objective of our study was to describe online health information–seeking behavior among older patients with chronic illnesses and to compare the characteristics of patients who report using the internet to obtain health information with those who do not. METHODS: The study population included 72,806 women aged 65 years and older enrolled in the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), a national cohort study, who completed a 2014 supplemental questionnaire assessing everyday technology use and internet use for researching health conditions. Comparisons were made between participants with and without a history of chronic illness and between users and nonusers of online sources for health information. Multivariate logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% CIs. RESULTS: Of the total, 59% (42,887/72,806) of older women used the internet for health information. Compared with women who did not use the internet to obtain health information, those who used the internet were younger (median age: 76 vs 81 years), more likely to be non-Hispanic white (90% [38,481/42,887] vs 87% [26,017/29,919]), earned a higher income (over $US 50,000: 55% [23,410/42,887] vs 33% [9991/29,919]), achieved a higher educational level (more than high school: 87% [37,493/42,887] vs 75% [22,377/29,919]), and were more likely to live with a partner (52% [22,457/42,887] vs 36% [10,759/29,919]) (all P<.001). Women with Alzheimer disease were least likely to report online health information–seeking compared to those without the disease (OR 0.41, 95% CI 0.38-0.43). In contrast, women with a recent diagnosis of cancer, within the previous 2 years (OR 1.23, 95% CI 1.11-1.36) or 2-5 years ago (OR 1.09, 95% CI 1.00-1.19), were most likely to use the internet for health information. CONCLUSIONS: Nearly 6 in 10 older women participating in the WHI reported using the internet to obtain health information. Patients recently diagnosed with cancer are more likely to be looking for health information online, even after adjustment for age, suggesting that these patients may have a greater need for digital health resources.
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spelling pubmed-73195952020-07-01 Online Health Information–Seeking Among Older Women With Chronic Illness: Analysis of the Women’s Health Initiative Sedrak, Mina S Soto-Perez-De-Celis, Enrique Nelson, Rebecca A Liu, Jennifer Waring, Molly E Lane, Dorothy S Paskett, Electra D Chlebowski, Rowan T J Med Internet Res Original Paper BACKGROUND: Understanding how older patients with chronic illnesses use the internet to obtain health information is relevant for the design of digital interventions aimed at improving the health and well-being of adults aged 65 years and older; this cohort represents the sickest, most expensive, and fastest-growing segment of the US population. OBJECTIVE: The objective of our study was to describe online health information–seeking behavior among older patients with chronic illnesses and to compare the characteristics of patients who report using the internet to obtain health information with those who do not. METHODS: The study population included 72,806 women aged 65 years and older enrolled in the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), a national cohort study, who completed a 2014 supplemental questionnaire assessing everyday technology use and internet use for researching health conditions. Comparisons were made between participants with and without a history of chronic illness and between users and nonusers of online sources for health information. Multivariate logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% CIs. RESULTS: Of the total, 59% (42,887/72,806) of older women used the internet for health information. Compared with women who did not use the internet to obtain health information, those who used the internet were younger (median age: 76 vs 81 years), more likely to be non-Hispanic white (90% [38,481/42,887] vs 87% [26,017/29,919]), earned a higher income (over $US 50,000: 55% [23,410/42,887] vs 33% [9991/29,919]), achieved a higher educational level (more than high school: 87% [37,493/42,887] vs 75% [22,377/29,919]), and were more likely to live with a partner (52% [22,457/42,887] vs 36% [10,759/29,919]) (all P<.001). Women with Alzheimer disease were least likely to report online health information–seeking compared to those without the disease (OR 0.41, 95% CI 0.38-0.43). In contrast, women with a recent diagnosis of cancer, within the previous 2 years (OR 1.23, 95% CI 1.11-1.36) or 2-5 years ago (OR 1.09, 95% CI 1.00-1.19), were most likely to use the internet for health information. CONCLUSIONS: Nearly 6 in 10 older women participating in the WHI reported using the internet to obtain health information. Patients recently diagnosed with cancer are more likely to be looking for health information online, even after adjustment for age, suggesting that these patients may have a greater need for digital health resources. JMIR Publications 2020-04-09 /pmc/articles/PMC7319595/ /pubmed/32271152 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/15906 Text en ©Mina S Sedrak, Enrique Soto-Perez-De-Celis, Rebecca A Nelson, Jennifer Liu, Molly E Waring, Dorothy S Lane, Electra D Paskett, Rowan T Chlebowski. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 09.04.2020. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://www.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
spellingShingle Original Paper
Sedrak, Mina S
Soto-Perez-De-Celis, Enrique
Nelson, Rebecca A
Liu, Jennifer
Waring, Molly E
Lane, Dorothy S
Paskett, Electra D
Chlebowski, Rowan T
Online Health Information–Seeking Among Older Women With Chronic Illness: Analysis of the Women’s Health Initiative
title Online Health Information–Seeking Among Older Women With Chronic Illness: Analysis of the Women’s Health Initiative
title_full Online Health Information–Seeking Among Older Women With Chronic Illness: Analysis of the Women’s Health Initiative
title_fullStr Online Health Information–Seeking Among Older Women With Chronic Illness: Analysis of the Women’s Health Initiative
title_full_unstemmed Online Health Information–Seeking Among Older Women With Chronic Illness: Analysis of the Women’s Health Initiative
title_short Online Health Information–Seeking Among Older Women With Chronic Illness: Analysis of the Women’s Health Initiative
title_sort online health information–seeking among older women with chronic illness: analysis of the women’s health initiative
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7319595/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32271152
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/15906
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