Journal of medical Internet research
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J. Med. Internet Res. · Mar 2016
Differences in Access to and Preferences for Using Patient Portals and Other eHealth Technologies Based on Race, Ethnicity, and Age: A Database and Survey Study of Seniors in a Large Health Plan.
Patients are being encouraged to go online to obtain health information and interact with their health care systems. However, a 2014 survey found that less than 60% of American adults aged 65 and older use the Internet, with much lower usage among black and Latino seniors compared with non-Hispanic white seniors, and among older versus younger seniors. ⋯ Health plans, government agencies, and other organizations that serve diverse groups of seniors should include social determinants such as race/ethnicity and age when monitoring trends in eHealth to ensure that eHealth disparities do not induce greater health status and health care disparities between more privileged and less privileged groups.
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J. Med. Internet Res. · Mar 2016
Entertainment or Health? Exploring the Internet Usage Patterns of the Urban Poor: A Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Controlled Trial.
Important gaps remain in our knowledge of how individuals from low socioeconomic position (SEP) use the Internet for resources and in understanding the full range of activities they perform online. Although self-report data indicate that low SEP individuals use the Internet less than high SEP people for health information and for other beneficial capital-enhancing activities, these results may not provide an accurate overall view of online use. ⋯ These data clearly show that familiarity and skills in using the Internet enhance the capacity to use it for diverse purposes, including health and to increase capital, and that Internet usage for specific activities is not a zero sum game. Using it for one type of topic, such as entertainment, does not detract from using it for other purposes. Findings may inform ways to engage low SEP groups with Internet resources.
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J. Med. Internet Res. · Feb 2016
Garbage in, Garbage Out: Data Collection, Quality Assessment and Reporting Standards for Social Media Data Use in Health Research, Infodemiology and Digital Disease Detection.
Social media have transformed the communications landscape. People increasingly obtain news and health information online and via social media. Social media platforms also serve as novel sources of rich observational data for health research (including infodemiology, infoveillance, and digital disease detection detection). While the number of studies using social data is growing rapidly, very few of these studies transparently outline their methods for collecting, filtering, and reporting those data. Keywords and search filters applied to social data form the lens through which researchers may observe what and how people communicate about a given topic. Without a properly focused lens, research conclusions may be biased or misleading. Standards of reporting data sources and quality are needed so that data scientists and consumers of social media research can evaluate and compare methods and findings across studies. ⋯ This paper sets forth a conceptual framework for the filtering and quality evaluation of social data that addresses several common challenges and moves toward establishing a standard of reporting social data. Researchers should clearly delineate data sources, how data were accessed and collected, and the search filter building process and how retrieval precision and recall were calculated. The proposed framework can be adapted to other public social media platforms.
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J. Med. Internet Res. · Jan 2016
ReviewThe Effectiveness of Prompts to Promote Engagement With Digital Interventions: A Systematic Review.
Digital interventions have been effective in improving numerous health outcomes and health behaviors; furthermore, they are increasingly being used in different health care areas, including self-management of long-term conditions, mental health, and health promotion. The full potential of digital interventions is hindered by a lack of user engagement. There is an urgent need to develop effective strategies that can promote users' engagement with digital interventions. One potential method is the use of technology-based reminders or prompts. ⋯ Overall, studies reported borderline positive effects of technology-based strategies on engagement compared to no strategy. However, the results have to be interpreted with caution. More research is needed to replicate findings and understand which characteristics of the strategies are effective in promoting engagement and how cost-effective they are.
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J. Med. Internet Res. · Jan 2016
Randomized Controlled TrialText Messaging for Exercise Promotion in Older Adults From an Upper-Middle-Income Country: Randomized Controlled Trial.
Mobile technology to promote exercise is effective; however, most evidence is from studies of younger groups in high-income countries. Investigating if short message service (SMS) texting can affect exercise participation in older adults from an upper-middle-income country is important considering the proliferation of mobile phones in developing regions and the increased interest of older adults in using mobile phones. ⋯ This study provides evidence that SMS text messaging is effective in promoting exercise in older adults from an upper-middle-income country. Although the effects were not maintained when SMS text messaging ceased, the results are promising and warrant more research on behavioral mobile health interventions in other regions.