scholarly journals Seniors Seeking Health Information Need Help Crossing ‘Digital Divide’—Correction

JAMA ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 293 (15) ◽  
pp. 1860
Keyword(s):  
Digital Divide ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Information Need

An Empirical Note on Health Information Digital Divide

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 15-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ajeya Jha ◽  
Jaya Rani Pandey
Keyword(s):  
Discriminant Analysis ◽  
Digital Divide ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Information Search ◽  
Geographical Location ◽  
Family Type ◽  
Online Health Information ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
And Gender ◽  
E Mail

Availability of healthcare information on internet has made it possible for patients or their relatives to search for such information. This study was undertaken to find answers to such questions. In all 754 respondents participated in the survey. The variables selected from literature survey and exploratory study are Health Information Digital Divide, Income, Having E-mail id, access to internet, geographical location, Education, family-type, age and gender. As the data is categorical the significance of difference has been calculated using Chi-square test. Later discriminant analysis was conducted to predict patients who make online health information search and the ones who do not. The result show that Income, Having E-mail id, access to internet, geographical location, Education and gender are significant factors that determine the propensity of people for online healthcare search. Age and family-type, however, were found to have no impact on such a behavior. Using discriminant analysis 94.5 percent patients who make online health information search could be correctly predicted.

Health information seeking of low socioeconomic status Hispanic adults using smartphones

2015 ◽  
Vol 67 (5) ◽  
pp. 542-561 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henna Kim ◽  
Yan Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Digital Divide ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Low Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Low Ses ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Low Socioeconomic ◽  
Wide Range

Purpose – Smartphones have great potential to bridge the digital divide that low-socioeconomic status (SES) Hispanics have been experiencing. However, little is known about this group’s use of smartphones for health information. The purpose of this paper is to fill the gap by exploring the context in which smartphones were used for health information. Design/methodology/approach – The authors interviewed 20 low-SES Hispanic participants using the semi-structured interview method. Participants had not obtained college degrees and had annual incomes less than $30,000, but had used their smartphones for health information. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed using the qualitative content analysis method. Findings – Being economical was an important reason for low-SES Hispanic users to use smartphones for health information. The users relied heavily on public Wi-Fi to access the internet. They searched a wide range of health topics, mostly using the mobile web rather than apps. They lacked knowledge and skills to effectively using apps, evaluating the quality of health information, and comprehend information. Research limitations/implications – Having access to smartphones alone does not help bridge the digital gap for low-SES Hispanics. Interventions need to consider improving these users’ smartphone literacy and health literacy, as well as improving their access to Wi-Fi services and to more quality content in Spanish. Originality/value – Prior studies speculated that smartphones could be a means to bridge digital divide experienced by the Hispanic ethnic group. This study provided empirical knowledge about how smartphones are used by these users for health information, and shed light on the design of future informational interventions.

scholarly journals The Digital Divide and Seeking Health Information on Smartphones in Asia: A Profile of Users (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaohui Wang ◽  
Jingyuan Shi ◽  
Kwan Min Lee
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Digital Divide ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Mobile Health ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Health Information Seeking ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
Technological Factors ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Health Related

BACKGROUND Although recent developments in mobile health (mHealth) have elevated the importance of assessing the extent to which smartphones empower individuals to seek information online, research in Asian countries investigating the behavior of seeking health information on smartphones has been rare. OBJECTIVE The twofold goal of our study was to provide a comprehensive profile of mobile health information seekers in 10 Asian countries and to examine the individual- and country-level digital divide in mobile health information seeking in Asia. METHODS With survey data from 10 Asian countries (N = 9,086), we ran multilevel regression models to assess the effects of sociodemographic factors, technological factors, and country-level disparity on using smartphones to seek health information. RESULTS Respondents who were women (β = .14, p < .001), parents (β = .16, p < .001), employed (β = .07, p = .009), of higher social status (β = .10, p < .001), and/or from countries with less health expenditure (β = .20, p = .002) were more likely to use smartphones to seek health information. Technological factors, especially the technology innovativeness (β = .11, p < .001) and frequency of smartphone use (β = .41, p < .001), were important factors of such information-seeking behavior. CONCLUSIONS Among smartphone users in Asia, health information seeking varies according to individuals’ socioeconomic status, their concerns with the quality of online information, their innovativeness towards technology, and the government’s health-related expenditure in their respective countries. Although smartphones widen the digital divide among individuals with different socioeconomic status, they also bridge the divide between countries with varying health expenditures. Especially in developing areas, smartphones appear to be a particularly useful complement to seeking health-related information.

scholarly journals The Relationship Between Individual Coping and the Need to Have and Seek Health Information Among Older Adults: Exploratory Mixed Methods Study

10.2196/15858 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. e15858
Author(s):  
Sabine Theis ◽  
Katharina Schäfer ◽  
Dajana Schäfer ◽  
Nicole Jochems ◽  
Verena Nitsch ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Coping Strategies ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Health Systems ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Information Exchange ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Information Need ◽  
Health Situation ◽  
The Relationship

Background The need to have and seek information shapes the context of computing systems. When it comes to health, individual coping influences human behavior. Therefore, the relationship between individual coping and the need to have and seek health information plays a crucial role in the development of digital health systems. Objective This study aims to examine the relationship between individual coping and the need to have and seek health information among older adults. Methods Questionnaires and semistructured interviews investigated the health information need (HIN) and health information–seeking behavior (HISB) in relation to the individual coping strategies of 26 older Germans. Results The mean age of the interviewed group was 71 years (SD 7). Quantitatively, a trend was found for a negative correlation between the avoidance-oriented coping and HIN (rs=−0.37895; bias-corrected and accelerated bootstrap 95% BCa CI −0.730 to 0.092; P=.05). The qualitative results supported this finding. For some participants, information and exchange was part of dealing with their health situation, whereas others wanted to learn as little as possible to avoid a decline in their health status. The older adults acquired, collected, and exchanged paper-based health data to augment clinical information sources and support information exchange with professionals. Conclusions Individual coping strategies are relevant for the design of digital health systems. They can support older adults in coping with their health situation, although it remains unclear how systems must be designed for people with an avoidance coping strategy to achieve the same acceptance.

Equal access to online information? Google’s suicide-prevention disparities may amplify a global digital divide

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 562-582 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Scherr ◽  
Mario Haim ◽  
Florian Arendt
Keyword(s):  
Digital Divide ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Suicide Prevention ◽  
Information Access ◽  
Equal Access ◽  
Online Health Information ◽  
Online Information ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Global Digital Divide

Worldwide, people profit from equally accessible online health information via search engines. Therefore, equal access to health information is a global imperative. We studied one specific scenario, in which Google functions as a gatekeeper when people seek suicide-related information using both helpful and harmful suicide-related search terms. To help prevent suicides, Google implemented a “suicide-prevention result” (SPR) at the very top of such search results. While this effort deserves credit, the present investigation compiled evidence that the SPR is not equally displayed to all users. Using a virtual agent-based testing methodology, a set of 3 studies in 11 countries found that the presentation of the SPR varies depending on where people search for suicide-related information. Language is a key factor explaining these differences. Google’s algorithms thereby contribute to a global digital divide in online health-information access with possibly lethal consequences. Higher and globally balanced display frequencies are desirable.

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