Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Jun 17, 2019
Date Accepted: Sep 24, 2019
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited.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.
Addressing Health Disparities among Older Adults: Intersecting Patient Engagement in Medical Research with Health Informatics
ABSTRACT
Background:
By 2035, older adults (65 years and over) are expected to outnumber children and will represent 78 million people in the U.S. population. As the aging population continues to grow, it is critical to reduce disparities in their representation in medical research.
Objective:
This study aims to describe sociodemographic characteristics, health-related behaviors, and health informatics factors that influence U.S. adults’ interest in engaging in medical research, beyond participation as study subjects.
Methods:
Nationally representative cross-sectional data from the 2014 Health Information National Trends Survey (N=3677) were analyzed. Descriptive statistics and weighted multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to assess predictors of one’s interest in patient engagement in medical research. The independent variables included age, general health, income, race/ethnicity, education level, insurance status, marital status, and health informatics.
Results:
We examined the association between the independent variables patient interest in engaging in medical research (PTEngage_Interested). Patient interest in engaging in medical research has a statistically significant association with age, adjusted p-value of 0.001. Younger (18-34), Lower Middle-aged (35-49), and Higher Middle-aged (50-64) Adults indicated interest at relatively the same frequency (29.08%, 29.56%, and 25.12%, respectively), but Older Adults (≥65) expressed less interest (17.10%) than the other age groups. After the multivariate model was run Older Adults (OR=.738; CI .500-1.088) were found to be significantly less likely to be interested in patient engagement in medical research than adults aged 50 to 64. Regardless of age, the strongest correlation was found between interest in patient engagement in medical research and actively looking for health information (p<.0001). Respondents who did not seek health information were significantly less likely than those who did to be interested in patient engagement in medical research.
Conclusions:
Patients’ interest in engaging in medical research vary by age and by information seeking behaviors. As the aging population continues to grow, it is critical to reduce disparities in their representation in medical research. Interest in participatory research methods may reflect an opportunity for consumer health informatics technologies to improve representation of older in future medical.
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