Previously submitted to: Journal of Medical Internet Research (no longer under consideration since Nov 14, 2022)
Date Submitted: Oct 25, 2022
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Is there a digital divide in eHealth? A cross-sectional survey of middle-aged and older residents in rural Shandong, China
ABSTRACT
Background:
Although eHealth is an important way to alleviate the imbalance in the distribution of medical resources, the utilization rate of eHealth services is low, especially in rural areas.
Objective:
The primary purpose of this study was to explore the factors that discourage the use of eHealth services, with middle-aged and older rural residents with medical service utilization over the past year as the research subjects, to identify targeted measures to bridge the digital divide.
Methods:
Although eHealth is an important way to alleviate the imbalance in the distribution of medical resources, the utilization rate of eHealth services is low, especially in rural areas. The primary purpose of this study was to explore the factors that discourage the use of eHealth services, with middle-aged and older rural residents with medical service utilization over the past year as the research subjects, to identify targeted measures to bridge the digital divide.
Results:
We found that 6.53% of the sample had used eHealth services. After controlling for confounding factors, years of education, self-rated health status, and local and non-local experience in Grade-A tertiary hospitals were positively correlated with the use of eHealth services. In contrast, age was negatively associated with the use of eHealth services.
Conclusions:
There was a digital divide in the use of eHealth services among people aged 45 years or older in rural China with real medical use. Older, less healthy, and less educated middle-aged and older rural Chinese individuals were vulnerable groups of eHealth utilization. The government should improve eHealth adoption and make members at different stages of development benefit from the dividend brought about by eHealth.
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