JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Patients that suffer from different diseases may prefer different e-health resources and some patient groups may use e-health more than others. Thus, e-health interventions need to take into account which e-health resource that is the optimal choice for patients that suffer from a given disease.

Objective:

To understand how long-term or chronic diseases influence the choice of one e-health resource over another.

Methods:

Data from the 7th Tromsø study was analyzed to determine how different diseases influence the use of different e-health resources. Specifically, the e-health resources considered were: use of apps, search engines, Internet videos and social media. The analysis contained data from 21,083 participants in the age group over 40 years. 15,585 (73.92%) reported to have suffered some disease. 10,604 (50.3%) of the participants reported to have used some kind of e-health resource in the last year. 7,854 (37.25%) reported to have used some kind of e-health resource in the last year and suffered (of had suffered) from some kind of specified disease. Logistic regression was used to analyze the dataset and determine which diseases significantly predicted the use of each e-health resource.

Results:

The use of apps was increased among those individuals that (had) suffered from psychological problems (OR 1.39, CI 1.23 - 1.56), cardiovascular diseases (OR 1.12, CI 1.01 - 1.24), and those part time workers that (had) suffered any of the diseases classified as ‘others’ (OR 2.08, CI 1.35-3.32). The use of search engines for accessing health information increased among individuals that suffered from psychological problems (OR 1.39, CI 1.25 - 1.55), cancer (OR 1.26, CI 1.11 - 1.44), or any of the diseases classified as other diseases (OR 1.27, CI 1.13 - 1.42). Regarding Internet videos, their use for accessing health information was more likely when the participant was a man (OR 1.31, CI 1.13 - 1.53), (had) suffered from psychological problems (OR 1.70, CI 1.43 - 2.01), or (had) suffered from ‘other diseases’ (OR 1.43, CI 1.20 - 1.71). The factors associated with an increase in the use of social media for accessing health information were: (had) suffered from psychological problems (OR 1.65, CI 1.42 – 1.91); working part time (OR 1.35, CI 0.62 - 2.63); receiving disability benefits (OR 1.42, CI 1.14 - 1.76); having received an upper secondary school education (OR 1.20, CI 1.03 - 1.38); being a man with high household income (OR 1.67, CI 1.07 - 2.60); suffering cardiovascular diseases and having a high household income (OR 3.39, CI 1.62 - 8.16); and suffering from respiratory diseases while being retired (OR 1.95, CI 1.28 - 2.97).

Conclusions:

Our findings show that different diseases are associated with the use of different e-health resources. This is useful knowledge for health organizations to plan e-health interventions more effectively by taking into account which type of e-health resource should be used for each patient group.