Seniors & E health

Hi guys, this is Mary.  just wanted to let you know how the research for the seniors and e-health idea was coming. I think if we went with this subject we should keep the topic broad, something like do seniors use the Internet to research health info, health care options, or their insurance info? How do they find their experiences? It looks like there are plenty of journal articles available on the topic & most are pretty recent.  I’ve posted the citations for a few good ones I came across down below.  The issue I’ve been having is find a forum, most senior health forums are located through more general health web pages, meaning there are all sorts of people accessing the site and not that many seniors participating.  The only legitimate senior forum i found that has it’s own web page is www.seniorhealthchannel.com, although the senior forums located through www.medhelp.org and www.wellsphere.com look ok too.  I also contacted the national institute on aging to see if they can provide any stats or references.  While I am still very interested in this topic, I don’t think we should do it for our project.  The minimal amount of senior forums would make holding our own survey mandatory.  While Ron is kind enough to pursue his connection to seniors in Duarte, it would mean finding a time that worked for at least a few of us, as well as the seniors, and traveling out to Duarte to do so.  Most of the summaries of the articles I have read so far on this issue, indicate that seniors do not use the web much, making the idea of posting an online survey rather unsatisfactory.  Both Ron’s and Sandra’s suggestions for projects allow us to survey populations that can be found right here on campus.  I feel like this would make conducting the research much more feasible.  If anyone contests this, please feel free to let me know.  If you agree with me, simply disregard the citations below.

looking forwarding to hearing your ideas!

Mary

1. Schwartz, DG. (2002).Seniors Connect: A Partnership for Training
Between Health Care and Public Libraries
Source:         Medical Reference Services Quarterly [0276-3869] Schwartz, D
yr:2002 vol:21 issue:3 pg:1 -20

The project’s goal was to
teach African-American and Hispanic senior citizens or their
caregivers, living
in two of the city’s poorest neighborhoods, how to search the Internet to
find quality, accurate, and understandable health information.

2.Campbell RJ.

Perspect Health Inf Manag. 2005 May 9;2:2.

Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.

This paper reports the findings from a study designed to determine whether, when
appropriately trained, older adults would use the Internet to gather healthcare
information and actively seek information that could directly affect their own treatment
and care. Results show that older adults are willing to use the Internet to locate health
information. However, familiarity with Internet-based healthcare resources did not lead
participants to adopt significant levels of Internet use or change the way they
participated in their own healthcare. These results suggest that the Internet may not
have as great an influence on how individuals manage their healthcare, and point out the
fact that seniors 65 and over may still cling to a paternalistic model when working with
their own healthcare provider.
Date of Electronic Publication: 2005 May 9
Publication Status: epublish
PMID: 18066370 [PubMed]

3.Lacenski A, Karras B, Moni G, Dockrey M, LoGerfo J.

AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2006;995.

Center for Public Health Informatics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.

We describe a Web-based survey system that collects information about physical activity
programs for elderly adults, and permits elderly users to search for programs that meet
their needs. The system is a centralized application that supports multiple regions and
facilitates data extraction and analysis.

MeSH Terms:

* Adult
* Data Collection
* *Exercise
* Health Resources
* Humans
* Information Storage and Retrieval/*methods
* *Internet
* Physical Fitness

Publication Status: ppublish
PMID: 17238614 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

4.Training digital divide seniors to use a telehealth system: a remote training approach.

Lai AM, Kaufman DR, Starren J.

AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2006;459-63.

Dept. of Biomedical Informatics, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.

As the use of health information technologies continues to proliferate amongst seniors,
many of whom lack computer experience, there is a need to develop effective training
approaches to foster basic competencies. This paper describes the REmote Patient
Education in a Telemedicine Environment (REPETE) system, a component of the IDEATel
telemedicine architecture. The REPETE architecture supports simultaneous visual and audio
teaching modes over low bandwidth connections. This paper presents an in-depth
qualitative analysis of two patients being trained to use the IDEATel patient web portal.
The results indicate that this method of instruction was useful in facilitating patients’
use of the web application. However, the observations suggest that there is learning
curve for the trainer to use the resources effectively to establish common ground and
foster competencies in the patient.

Publication Types:

* Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
* Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov’t

MeSH Terms:

* Aged
* Computer User Training/*methods
* Computer-Assisted Instruction
* *Education, Distance
* Female
* Humans
* Internet
* Male
* Patient Education as Topic
* Self Care
* *Telemedicine
* User-Computer Interface
* Videoconferencing

Grant Support:

* N01-LM07079/LM/United States NLM

Publication Status: ppublish
PMID: 17238383 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

5.Teaching elderly adults to use the Internet to access health care information:
before-after study.

Campbell RJ, Nolfi DA.

J Med Internet Res. 2005 Jun 30;7(2):e19.

Rangos School of Health Sciences, Department of Health Management Systems, Duquesne
University, Pittsburgh, PA 15282, USA. campbellr@duq.edu

BACKGROUND: Much has been written about the Internet’s potential to revolutionize health
care delivery. As younger populations increasingly utilize Internet-based health care
information, it will be essential to ensure that the elderly become adept at using this
medium for health care purposes, especially those from minority, low income, and limited
educational backgrounds. OBJECTIVE: This paper presents the results of a program designed
to teach elderly adults to use the Internet to access health care information. The
objective was to examine whether the training led to changes in participant’s perceptions
of their health, perceptions of their interactions with health care providers, health
information-seeking behaviors, and self-care activities. METHODS: Participants attended a
5-week training course held in public libraries and senior community centers within the
greater Pittsburgh and Allegheny County region. Classes within each seminar lasted 2
hours and consisted of lecture and hands-on training. Baseline surveys were administered
prior to the course, 5-week follow-up surveys were administered immediately after the
course, and final surveys were mailed 1 year later. Instruments included the
Multidimensional Health Locus of Control (MHLC) Scale, which measures three domains of
locus of control (internal, external, and chance); the Krantz Health Opinion Survey
(HOS); and the Lau, Hartman, and Ware Health Value Survey. Two additional questionnaires
included multiple choice and qualitative questions designed to measure participants’
Internet utilization and levels of health care participation. The Health Participation
Survey was administered with the baseline survey. The Internet Use Survey was
administered at the 1-year mark and contained several items from the Health Participation
Survey, which allowed comparison between baseline and 1-year responses. RESULTS: Of the60
elderly adults who began the training course, 42 (mean age 72) completed the entire
5-week training program and the 5-week follow-up questionnaire administered immediately
after the program, and 27 completed the 1-year follow-up survey. Statistically
significant differences were found between baseline and 5-week follow-up results for MHLC
chance subscores in males (P = .02) and females (P = .05), as well as total HOS
information seeking scores (P = .05). However, these statistically significant findings
disappeared when all 60 original participants were included using a “last observation
carried forward” imputation. No statistically significant changes were found between
baseline and 5-week follow-up surveys for MHLC external (P = .44) and internal (P = .97)
locus of control scores in both genders, or for the HOS behavioral involvement subscale
(P = .65). CONCLUSIONS: We failed to show robust before-after effects for most of the
outcomes measured. Elderly adults may be willing to use the Internet as a source for
general health information; however, when making decisions about their health care, our
participants seemed to adhere to a physician-centered model of care. Demographic and
situational variables may play a large role in determining which seniors will use the
Internet for making behavioral decisions about their health care and in which scenarios
they will do so.

MeSH Terms:

* Aged
* Attitude to Health
* *Delivery of Health Care
* Female
* Follow-Up Studies
* Health Education/*methods
* Humans
* *Information Dissemination
* *Internet
* Male
* Patient Acceptance of Health Care
* Patient Participation
* Physician-Patient Relations
* Questionnaires
* *Teaching

Date of Electronic Publication: 2005 Jun 30
Publication Status: epublish
PMID: 15998610 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

6.          Greater expectations. Internet access is no longer a luxury for seniors–it’s an
expectation they want you to fulfill.
for vertical spacing only
Brunk B.
Contemp Longterm Care. 2003 Apr;26(4):39. No abstract available.
PMID: 12698899 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
From PubMed

Tags: seniors