Understanding the Digital Gap Among US Adults With Disability: Cross-Sectional Analysis of the Health Information National Trends Survey 2013.
Eun Ji Kim, Yiyang Yuan, Jane Liebschutz and 2 others
PMID 29549074WHAT IT FOUND
US adults with disability were not less likely to exchange medical information electronically with a provider.
They were less likely to use the internet for recent health information, especially with vision or mobility difficulty.
Key findings
01After adjusting for other factors, adults with disability were less likely to have used the internet in their most recent search for health information (adjusted odds ratio 0.65, 95% CI 0.43 to 0.98).
02Vision and mobility difficulties were associated with lower use of the internet in the most recent health information search (vision adjusted odds ratio 0.27, 95% CI 0.11 to 0.65; mobility adjusted odds ratio 0.51, 95% CI 0.30 to 0.88).
03Disability was not associated with exchanging medical information with a provider by email, text, app, video conference, or social media (odds ratio 0.76, 95% CI 0.53 to 1.09; adjusted odds ratio 1.37, 95% CI 0.92 to 2.04).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The study is cross-sectional, so it cannot show that disability caused lower internet use. The survey was secondary data, and factors such as social support were not available. The response rate was 35.2%, and 94.7% of responses were in English, so selection and nonresponse bias are possible. Disability status was self-reported, and it was not known whether proxy respondents answered for people with disability. The weighted percentages for all six disability domains were lower than national estimates, which may mean the disability community was underrepresented. Information source use relied on recall, so misclassification is possible.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that disability causes lower internet use or that accessible websites alone will close the gap. The study is cross-sectional and self-reported, and it found no association between disability and exchanging medical information electronically.