Informal Caregivers' Use of Internet-Based Health Resources: An Analysis of the Health Information National Trends Survey.
JMIR Aging
; 1(2): e11051, 2018 Dec 18.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-31518244
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Informal caregivers express strong interest in technology innovations to help them in their caregiving role; however, divides across sociodemographic characteristics in internet and technology access may preclude the most vulnerable caregivers from accessing such resources.OBJECTIVE:
This study aims to examine caregivers' internet use, both generally and for seeking health-related information, and whether usage differs as a function of caregivers' characteristics.METHODS:
Data were analyzed from the Health Information National Trends Survey 5 Cycle 1. Participants were included in analyses if they self-identified as providing uncompensated care to a close individual. Caregivers reported internet use factors, age, education, rurality, general health, distress, and objective caregiving burden. We used chi-square tests of independence with jackknife variance estimation to compare whether internet use factors differed by caregivers' characteristics.RESULTS:
A total of 77.5% (303/391) caregivers surveyed reported ever using the internet. Of internet users, 88.1% (267/303) accessed from a home computer and 83.2% (252/303) from a mobile device. Most caregivers accessed health information for themselves (286/391, 73.1%) or others (264/391, 67.5%); fewer communicated with a doctor over the Web (148/391, 37.9%) or had a wellness app (171/391, 43.7%). Caregivers reporting younger age, more education, and good health were more likely to endorse any of these activities. Furthermore, two-thirds of caregivers (258/391, 66.0%) endorsed trust in health information from the internet.CONCLUSIONS:
Computers and mobile devices are practical platforms for disseminating caregiving-related information and supportive services to informal caregivers; these modalities may, however, have a more limited reach to caregivers who are older, have less education, and are in poorer health.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Type of study:
Prognostic_studies
/
Qualitative_research
Language:
En
Journal:
JMIR Aging
Year:
2018
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Estados Unidos