miércoles, 16 de octubre de 2019

Older Adult Internet Use and eHealth Literacy. - PubMed - NCBI

2018 Oct 24:733464818807468. doi: 10.1177/0733464818807468. [Epub ahead of print]

Older Adult Internet Use and eHealth Literacy.

Arcury TA1, Sandberg JC1, Melius KP1, Quandt SA1, Leng X1, Latulipe C2, Miller DP Jr1, Smith DA3, Bertoni AG1.

Author information

1: 1 Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA.
2: 2 The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA.
3: 3 Greene County Health Care Inc., Snow Hill, NC, USA.

Abstract

We examine Internet use and eHealth literacy among older adults (aged 55+ years) who were patients at clinics serving low-income populations. Participants included 200 minority and White adults who completed interviews based on a technology acceptance conceptual model. A total of 106 participants (53.0%) used the Internet; utilization was associated with personal characteristics (age, ethnicity, education, poverty), computer characteristics (number of e-devices, computer stress), social support (marital status), and health knowledge and attitudes (health literacy, medical decision making, health information sources), but not health status. Of the 106 participants who used the Internet, 52 (49.1%) had high eHealth literacy; eHealth literacy was associated with computer characteristics (number of e-devices, computer stress), and health knowledge and attitudes (medical decision making, health information sources). In multivariate analysis, computer stress maintained a significant inverse association with eHealth literacy. Educational interventions to help older adults successfully use technology and improve eHealth literacy must be identified.