scholarly journals Impact of the Internet on Medical Decisions of Chinese Adults: Longitudinal Data Analysis

10.2196/18481 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (9) ◽  
pp. e18481
Author(s):  
Qianqian Ma ◽  
Dongxu Sun ◽  
Fangfang Cui ◽  
Yunkai Zhai ◽  
Jie Zhao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Data ◽  
Medical Treatment ◽  
Hospital Care ◽  
Medical Information ◽  
Self Care ◽  
Medical Institution ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Chinese Adults ◽  
Medical Decisions ◽  
Common Diseases

Background The internet has caused the explosive growth of medical information and has greatly improved the availability of medical knowledge. This makes the internet one of the main ways for residents to obtain medical information and knowledge before seeking medical treatment. However, little has been researched on how the internet affects medical decisions. Objective The purpose of this study was to explore the associations between internet behaviors and medical decisions among Chinese adults aged 18 or over, including whether to go to the hospital and which level of medical institution to choose. Methods With the adult residents (≥18 years old) in 12 regions including urban and rural areas taken as the research objects, the differences in medical choices of adults with various characteristics were analyzed, and generalized linear mixed models were adopted to analyze the longitudinal data of the China Health Nutrition Survey from 2006 to 2015. Results Adult groups with different ages, genders, education levels, regions, places of residence, severities of illness and injury, years of suffering from hypertension, and history of chronic diseases showed diverse medical decisions, and the differences were statistically significant (P<.05). After controlling for these potential confounding factors and taking self-care as the reference, the probability of Chinese adults who participated in online browsing activities selecting hospital care was 0.82 (95% CI 0.69-0.98; P=.03) times that of residents who did not participate in online browsing activities. In terms of medical institution choices, adults who participated in online browsing activities were 1.86 (95% CI 1.35-2.58; P<.001) times more likely to opt for municipal medical treatment than primary care. However, the effect of online browsing on the selection probability of county-level hospitals was not significant compared with primary hospitals (P=.59). Robust analysis verified that accessing the internet had a similar effect on Chinese adults’ medical decisions. Conclusions Chinese adults who use the internet are a little less likely to go to the hospital than self-care. The internet has broken down the barriers to obtain knowledge of common diseases and thus has a slight substitution effect of self-care on hospital care. Internet use may increase the probability of adults going to municipal hospitals. The rising tendency of visiting high-level medical institutions may be consequently exacerbated due to knowledge monopoly of severe and complicated diseases that is difficult to eliminate, and the increase in inconsistent and incomplete medical information online will blur the residents’ cognitive boundary of common diseases and severe diseases. Exploring the substantive impact of the internet on medical decision making is of great significance for further rational planning and utilization of the internet, in order to guide patients to appropriate medical institution.

scholarly journals Impact of the Internet on Medical Decisions of Chinese Adults: Longitudinal Data Analysis (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qianqian Ma ◽  
Dongxu Sun ◽  
Fangfang Cui ◽  
Yunkai Zhai ◽  
Jie Zhao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Data ◽  
Medical Treatment ◽  
Hospital Care ◽  
Medical Information ◽  
Self Care ◽  
Medical Institution ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Chinese Adults ◽  
Medical Decisions ◽  
Common Diseases

BACKGROUND The internet has caused the explosive growth of medical information and has greatly improved the availability of medical knowledge. This makes the internet one of the main ways for residents to obtain medical information and knowledge before seeking medical treatment. However, little has been researched on how the internet affects medical decisions. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to explore the associations between internet behaviors and medical decisions among Chinese adults aged 18 or over, including whether to go to the hospital and which level of medical institution to choose. METHODS With the adult residents (≥18 years old) in 12 regions including urban and rural areas taken as the research objects, the differences in medical choices of adults with various characteristics were analyzed, and generalized linear mixed models were adopted to analyze the longitudinal data of the China Health Nutrition Survey from 2006 to 2015. RESULTS Adult groups with different ages, genders, education levels, regions, places of residence, severities of illness and injury, years of suffering from hypertension, and history of chronic diseases showed diverse medical decisions, and the differences were statistically significant (<i>P</i>&lt;.05). After controlling for these potential confounding factors and taking self-care as the reference, the probability of Chinese adults who participated in online browsing activities selecting hospital care was 0.82 (95% CI 0.69-0.98; <i>P</i>=.03) times that of residents who did not participate in online browsing activities. In terms of medical institution choices, adults who participated in online browsing activities were 1.86 (95% CI 1.35-2.58; <i>P</i>&lt;.001) times more likely to opt for municipal medical treatment than primary care. However, the effect of online browsing on the selection probability of county-level hospitals was not significant compared with primary hospitals (<i>P</i>=.59). Robust analysis verified that accessing the internet had a similar effect on Chinese adults’ medical decisions. CONCLUSIONS Chinese adults who use the internet are a little less likely to go to the hospital than self-care. The internet has broken down the barriers to obtain knowledge of common diseases and thus has a slight substitution effect of self-care on hospital care. Internet use may increase the probability of adults going to municipal hospitals. The rising tendency of visiting high-level medical institutions may be consequently exacerbated due to knowledge monopoly of severe and complicated diseases that is difficult to eliminate, and the increase in inconsistent and incomplete medical information online will blur the residents’ cognitive boundary of common diseases and severe diseases. Exploring the substantive impact of the internet on medical decision making is of great significance for further rational planning and utilization of the internet, in order to guide patients to appropriate medical institution.

scholarly journals Does Internet Use Affect Medical Decisions among Older Adults in China? Evidence from CHARLS

Healthcare ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 60
Author(s):  
Gan Li ◽  
Chuanfeng Han ◽  
Pihui Liu
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Internet Use ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Medical Institution ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Cluster Sampling ◽  
Fe Model ◽  
Medical Decisions ◽  
Common Diseases ◽  
Medical Institutions

Background: The rapid growth of the elderly population poses a huge challenge for people to access medical services. The key to get rid of the dilemma is for patients to go firstly to primary medical institutions. Existing studies have identified numerous factors that can affect patients’ health institution choice. However, we currently know little about the role of Internet use in the patients’ medical decisions. The objective of this study is to explore health-seeking behavior and institution choice under the background of the Internet era from the perspective of older adults, and to analyze whether the Internet could guide patients to the appropriate medical institution so as to accomplish hierarchical treatment. Methods: The dataset comprises 9416 people aged 45 or above from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey (CHARLS), which, through multistage cluster sampling, was conducted in 2011, 2013, and 2015. Logistic regression, PSM, and FE model are used to estimate the influence of Internet use on the health care decision-making behavior. Results: Internet use has a significant positive impact on the self-treatment of common diseases (β = 0.05, p < 0.05). In terms of medical institution choices, those who use Internet are more inclined to choose top-level hospitals than community health service institutions to treat common diseases (β = 0.06, p < 0.01). Conclusions: The Internet has lowered the obstacles to learning about common ailments, resulting in a substitution impact of self-treatment for hospital care. However, Internet use may aggravate older adults’ perception of the risk of disease, which exacerbates the tendency of going to higher-level medical institutions for medical treatment. The finding of the study is useful for further rational planning and utilization of the Internet in order to guide patients to appropriate medical institution, which helps to improve the efficiency of the overall medical and health services.

scholarly journals Cancer patients’ information seeking behavior related to online electronic healthcare records

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 146045822110247
Author(s):  
Hanife Rexhepi ◽  
Isto Huvila ◽  
Rose-Mharie Åhlfeldt ◽  
Åsa Cajander
Keyword(s):  
Cancer Patients ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
Medical Information ◽  
Information Seeking Behavior ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Seeking Behavior ◽  
Information Horizons ◽  
Health Information Sources

Patients’ online access to their EHR together with the rapid proliferation of medical information on the Internet has changed how patients use information to learn about their health. Patients’ tendency to turn to the Internet to find information about their health and care is well-documented. However, little is known about patients’ information seeking behavior when using online EHRs. By using information horizons as an analytical tool this paper aims to investigate the information behavior of cancer patients who have chosen to view their EHRs (readers) and to those who have not made that option (non-readers). Thirty interviews were conducted with patients. Based on information horizons, it seems that non-reading is associated with living in a narrower information world in comparison to readers. The findings do not suggest that the smallness would be a result of active avoidance of information, or that it would be counterproductive for the patients. The findings suggest, however, that EHRs would benefit from comprehensive linking to authoritative health information sources to help users to understand their contents. In parallel, healthcare professionals should be more aware of their personal role as a key source of health information to those who choose not to read their EHRs.

scholarly journals Medical Device Integration Model Based on the Internet of Things

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 256-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aiyu Hao ◽  
Ling Wang
Keyword(s):  
Information System ◽  
Internet Of Things ◽  
Medical Device ◽  
Medical Devices ◽  
Medical Information ◽  
Medical Information System ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Model Based ◽  
Device Integration ◽  
The Internet Of Things

At present, hospitals in our country have basically established the HIS system, which manages registration, treatment, and charge, among many others, of patients. During treatment, patients need to use medical devices repeatedly to acquire all sorts of inspection data. Currently, the output data of the medical devices are often manually input into information system, which is easy to get wrong or easy to cause mismatches between inspection reports and patients. For some small hospitals of which information construction is still relatively weak, the information generated by the devices is still presented in the form of paper reports. When doctors or patients want to have access to the data at a given time again, they can only look at the paper files. Data integration between medical devices has long been a difficult problem for the medical information system, because the data from medical devices lack mandatory unified global standards and have outstanding heterogeneity of devices. In order to protect their own interests, manufacturers use special protocols, etc., thus causing medical devices to still be the "lonely island" of hospital information system. Besides, unfocused application of the data will lead to failure to achieve a reasonable distribution of medical resources. With the deepening of IT construction in hospitals, medical information systems will be bound to develop toward mobile applications, intelligent analysis, and interconnection and interworking, on the premise that there is an effective medical device integration (MDI) technology. To this end, this paper presents a MDI model based on the Internet of Things (IoT). Through abstract classification, this model is able to extract the common characteristics of the devices, resolve the heterogeneous differences between them, and employ a unified protocol to integrate data between devices. And by the IoT technology, it realizes interconnection network of devices and conducts associate matching between the data and the inspection with the terminal device in a timely manner.

402 The challenge of medical information on the internet: The experiences of Orphanet dedicated to the rare diseases and orphan drugs

1999 ◽  
Vol 3 (6) ◽  
pp. A56
Author(s):  
S. Aymé ◽  
D. Oziel ◽  
B. Urbero ◽  
E. Lecouturier ◽  
F. Reboul-Salze ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rare Diseases ◽  
Medical Information ◽  
Orphan Drugs ◽  
The Internet

scholarly journals Trigger Warnings: Sex, Lies and Social Justice Utopia on Tumblr

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lenore Bell
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Gender Identity ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Sexual Trauma ◽  
Self Care ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Global Community ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Trigger Warnings

Inthe spring of 2012, a major scandal rocked the queer social justice communityon Tumblr. One of its most popular bloggers and activists, a 22 -year-oldtransman named Ira Gray suddenly faced by a deluge of sexual assaultallegations from multiple people via Tumblr. Despite the queer social justicecommunity's pride in being open and accepting, many of its practices are rigid,pedantic and counterproductive. The rise and fall of Ira Gray's celebritystatus has highlighted how truly divided this online community can be.Sexuality and gender identity were not the only lines of contention; mentalillness, race, class and trauma played dominant roles in the discussion. Thevery fact that the accusers had stayed silent for so long is telling. Throughanalysing the tumblr posts of the accused, accusers and othercommentators/spectators, one can see how mental illness, privilege andsexuality are negotiated in this small yet global community. For many queersocial justice tumblr bloggers, graphically detailed posts about theirexperience of sexual trauma lie side-by-side with explicit nude phone cameraportraits of the blogger tagged as "self-care." I argue that theethos created by this corner of the internet does not provide a queer oasis forthe user away from an overbearing, hetero-normative world. Instead, itintroduces a complicated set of rules and mores that presents newcomplications. The combination of naked exposure and online depersonalisationcan prove toxic.

scholarly journals Factors associated with using the internet for medical information based on the doctor-patient trust model: a cross-sectional study

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yang Fu ◽  
Tianwei Tang ◽  
Junhao Long ◽  
Bohuai Lin ◽  
Jiayue Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Medical Treatment ◽  
Medical Care ◽  
Medical Information ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Behavioural Intention ◽  
Total Effect ◽  
Patient Trust ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Factors Associated ◽  
Personal Trust

Abstract Background Internet medical care has been advancing steadily, especially during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, the development momentum of Internet medical care in China is more vigorous. This study aimed to explore the factors associated with using the Internet for medical information, to examine the popularisation and implementation of Internet medical treatment and feasible strategies, and promote the further development of Internet medical treatment. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted on 408 medical patients who had used online medical services. The one-way analysis of variance or independent samples t-test was used to compare the differences in the influence of demographic characteristics on behavioural intentions of different people seeking medical care. Pearson’s correlation was used to evaluate the correlation between different measurement variables. A mediation regression analysis was used to explore the mediating role of trust in Internet medical care. Results The difference in the influence of Internet medical use frequency on the behavioural intention of different participants was statistically significant (F = 3.311, P = 0.038). Among the influencing factors, personal trust propensity (r = 0.387, P < 0.01), website credibility (r = 0.662, P < 0.01), hospital credibility (r = 0.629, P < 0.01), doctor’s credibility (r = 0.746, P < 0.01), and online patient trust (r = 0.874, P < 0.01) were positively correlated with patients’ behavioural intentions. In the analysis of intermediary factors, the total effect of the credibility of the diagnosis and treatment website on the behavioural intention of patients was 0.344. The total effect of the credibility of the diagnosis and treatment hospital on the behavioural intention of patients was 0.312; the total effect of the service doctor’s credibility on the patient’s behavioural intention was 0.385; the total effect of the personal trust tendency on the patient’s behavioural intention was 0.296. Conclusions This study found defects in various factors that produce distrust in Internet medical treatment. It also reveals the positive effect of trust factors on the development and implementation of Internet medical treatment and provides some ideas for improving the use of Internet medical treatment by the masses.

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