Patients’ and healthcare providers’ perceptions and experiences of telehealth use and online health information use in chronic disease management for older patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a qualitative study

Background Telehealth and online health information provide patients with increased access to healthcare services and health information in chronic disease management of older patients with chronic diseases, addressing the challenge of inadequate health resources and promoting active and informed participation of older patients in chronic disease management. There are few qualitative studies on the application of telehealth and online health information to chronic disease management in older patients. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is one of the most common chronic diseases in older adults. Telehealth is widely used in the management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions and experiences of older patients and healthcare providers in the application of telehealth and online health information to chronic disease management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Methods A qualitative descriptive study with data generated from 52 individual semi-structured interviews with 29 patients [Law of the People’s Republic of China on the protection of the rights and interests of older people (2018 Revised Version) = >60 years old] with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and 23 healthcare providers. The inductive thematic analysis method was used for data analysis. Results Four themes and 16 sub-themes were identified in this study. Four themes included: faced with a vast amount of online health information, essential competencies and personality traits ensuring older patients’ participation and sustained use, user experience with the use of technology, being in a complex social context. Conclusion The ability of patients to understand health information should be fully considered while facilitating access to online health information for older patients. The role of health responsibility and user experience in older patients’ participation and sustained use of telehealth and online health information needs to be emphasised. In addition, the complex social context is a determining factor to be considered, particularly the complex impact of a reliance on offspring and social prejudice on the behaviour of older adults using telehealth and online health information.

Skilful Surfing Online for Anxiety Reduction (SO-FAR) in Pregnancy

The development of the Skilful surfing Online For Anxiety Reduction (SO-FAR) in pregnancy (SO-FAR) mental health (mHealth) application (app) was supported by previous research which modelled the theory of Skilful Surfing. The model informed the app development, with each facet of the model corresponding to a different intervention included in the app. The aim of this chapter was to report the development of an mHealth app to relieve pregnancy-specific health anxiety. App content inclusion was based on previous literature and recommendations for mHealth app inclusions. Overall, the chapter provides the reader with a comprehensive account of the development of the SO-FAR app which may reduce levels of pregnancy-specific HA by encouraging women to become more adept when navigating through online health information, self-aware, and educated and promoting the ability to identify triggers and understand when and why they are experiencing maladaptive cognition and rumination in a self-guided manner.

NLM’s revolution in consumer health information to improve patient outcomes

Under the leadership of NLM Director Donald A.B. Lindberg M.D., the National Library of Medicine (NLM) continued to promote its services to the nation’s health care professionals and scientists. With support of the U.S. Congress, it initiated new communications and outreach programs and services directed at the general public that revolutionized their access to information as well. Because effective health communication must be tailored for the audience and the situation, Lindberg supported the development of online health information tools designed to help consumers find free, comprehensive, timely, and trustworthy sources of health information that, ultimately, can improve patient outcomes. New and popular consumer-friendly websites were championed by Lindberg, including MedlinePlus, and ClincialTrials.gov, and he formed unique partnerships with national physician organizations to educate their patients about reliable sources of health information from the NLM. A new era of timely and trusted online health information for the general public began in 2006 under Lindberg’s tenure culminating in the development, publication and distribution of NIH’s first consumer magazine, NIH MedlinePlus, featuring the research and findings of the NIH. In his effort to improve patient outcomes, Dr. Lindberg revolutionized the Library’s outreach capabilities and successfully expanded its mission to serve not only health professionals and scientists, but also consumers nationwide.

Developing a Quality Benchmark for Determining the Credibility of Web Health Information- a Protocol of a Gold Standard Approach

Background: The current pandemic of COVID-19 has changed the way health information is distributed through online platforms. These platforms have played a significant role in informing patients and the public with knowledge that has changed the virtual world forever. Simultaneously, there are growing concerns that much of the information is not credible, impacting patient health outcomes, causing human lives, and tremendous resource waste. With the increasing use of online platforms, patients/the public require new learning models and sharing medical knowledge. They need to be empowered with strategies to navigate disinformation on online platforms.Methods and Design: To meet the urgent need to combat health “misinformation,” the research team proposes a structured approach to develop a quality benchmark, an evidence-based tool that identifies and addresses the determinants of online health information reliability. The specific methods to develop the intervention are the following: (1) systematic reviews: two comprehensive systematic reviews to understand the current state of the quality of online health information and to identify research gaps, (2) content analysis: develop a conceptual framework based on established and complementary knowledge translation approaches for analyzing the existing quality assessment tools and draft a unique set of quality of domains, (3) focus groups: multiple focus groups with diverse patients/the public and health information providers to test the acceptability and usability of the quality domains, (4) development and evaluation: a unique set of determinants of reliability will be finalized along with a preferred scoring classification. These items will be used to develop and validate a quality benchmark to assess the quality of online health information.Expected Outcomes: This multi-phase project informed by theory will lead to new knowledge that is intended to inform the development of a patient-friendly quality benchmark. This benchmark will inform best practices and policies in disseminating reliable web health information, thus reducing disparities in access to health knowledge and combat misinformation online. In addition, we envision the final product can be used as a gold standard for developing similar interventions for specific groups of patients or populations.

Undergraduate Students’ Online Health Information-Seeking Behavior during the COVID-19 Pandemic

As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept across the world, the amount of health-related information available has skyrocketed. Individuals can easily access health information through the internet, which may influence their thoughts or behavior, causing potential technological risks that may affect their lives. This study examined the online health information-seeking behavior of undergraduate students. Taking health issues as a guiding framework, content analysis was adopted to assess participants’ online health information-seeking behavior using a computer screen recording software, and coding analysis was conducted. The study was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic with a formal sample of 101 participants. In terms of online health information-seeking behavior, 59% of the study participants used nouns as keywords, only 27% used Boolean logic retrieval techniques, 81% paid attention to the date of the data, and 85% did not consider the author’s professionalism. The results indicate that health information-seeking behavior and outcome judgments may be a missing piece of the puzzle in higher education. Consequently, the development of online health information-seeking skills through programs for undergraduate students is suggested to ensure that online readers have access to appropriate health information.

Online Health Information Seeking Behavior: A Systematic Review

The last five years have seen a leap in the development of information technology and social media. Seeking health information online has become popular. It has been widely accepted that online health information seeking behavior has a positive impact on health information consumers. Due to its importance, online health information seeking behavior has been investigated from different aspects. However, there is lacking a systematic review that can integrate the findings of the most recent research work in online health information seeking, and provide guidance to governments, health organizations, and social media platforms on how to support and promote this seeking behavior, and improve the services of online health information access and provision. We therefore conduct this systematic review. The Google Scholar database was searched for existing research on online health information seeking behavior between 2016 and 2021 to obtain the most recent findings. Within the 97 papers searched, 20 met our inclusion criteria. Through a systematic review, this paper identifies general behavioral patterns, and influencing factors such as age, gender, income, employment status, literacy (or education) level, country of origin and places of residence, and caregiving role. Facilitators (i.e., the existence of online communities, the privacy feature, real-time interaction, and archived health information format), and barriers (i.e., low health literacy, limited accessibility and information retrieval skills, low reliable, deficient and elusive health information, platform censorship, and lack of misinformation checks) to online health information seeking behavior are also discovered.

Online Health Information Wants of Caregivers for Persons With Dementia in Social Media

Family caregivers of persons with dementia (PWDs) use social media to obtain and share health information. Yet relatively little is known about the types of information that these caregivers share. We address this gap by analyzing caregivers’ posts (N = 401) in two subreddits, r/Alzheimers and r/dementia, which represent two subgroups on the social media platform Reddit. Our research questions were as follows: (1) What are these caregivers’ main purposes in posting? (2) What types of health information do the caregivers exchange online? (3) What are the characteristics of online posts that receive the caregivers’ greatest attention? Content and correlational analyses revealed that over half of users (57%) posted regarding specific types of health information that they desired to seek and share, whereas the remaining users posted information for sharing only. The health information most commonly posted fell into the following three categories: psychosocial health information, information about patients’ daily care, and characteristics of health conditions. The more health information types that a post contained, the greater the number of people who participated in the subreddit discussions. Further research should examine how social media meet PWD caregivers’ needs for information support.