Reevaluating the Digital Divide: Current Lack of Internet Use Is Not a Barrier to Adoption of Novel Health Information Technology  

Oleh:

Watson, Alice J. ; Bell, Alastair G. ; Kvedar, Joseph C. ; Grant, Richard W.

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Diabetes Care vol. 31 no. 03 (Mar. 2008), page 433.
Topik: HIT; health information technology

Ketersediaan

Perpustakaan FK Nomor Panggil: D05.K.2008.02 Non-tandon: 1 (dapat dipinjam: 0) Tandon: tidak ada

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Isi artikel

INTRODUCTION Improving care for a growing population of complex patients with type 2 diabetes requires developing innovative strategies for clinical management (1,2). Currently, roughly 70% of the U.S. population uses the Internet (3,4). Disparities in Internet use across social and ethnic strata, however, have resulted in the well-publicized "digital divide" (5,6). Population segments less likely to be online, such as the elderly, nonwhite race/ethnic groups, and the poor, are also disproportionately affected by diabetes (7). It is unknown whether barriers to Internet use extend to the use of other health information technology (HIT) tools being developed to support diabetes care. We hypothesized that patients not currently online might nonetheless be receptive to adopting future technologies designed to support their diabetes care. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We conducted a mail survey of 4,024 patients with type 2 diabetes in eastern Massachusetts identified via our primary care network's administrative database. After excluding 102 ineligible subjects, our response rate was 29% (1,146 of 3,922). Excluding subjects who left blank the question about current Internet use, 952 responses remained for analysis (24% of eligible cohort). Compared with nonrespondents, survey respondents were somewhat older (65.8 vs. 64.2 years, P = 0.002), more often male (58 vs. 49%, P < 0.001), more often white (86 vs. 78%, P < 0.001), and lived in neighborhoods with slightly higher median family incomes ($49,746 vs. $44,101 based on annual tax returns by zip code, P . . .

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