Community health behavior change through computer network health promotion: preliminary findings from Stanford Health-Net.
Computer-based health education has been employed in many settings. However, data on resultant behavior change are lacking. A randomized, controlled, prospective study was performed to test the efficacy of Stanford Health-Net (Stanford, CA, U.S.A.) in changing community health behaviors. Graduate and undergraduate students (N = 1003) were randomly assigned to treatment and control conditions. The treatment group received access to Health-Net, a health promotion computer network emphasizing specific self-care and preventive strategies. Over a 4-month intervention period, 26% of the treatment group used Health-Net an average of 6.4 times each (range 1-97). The most commonly cited reasons for use were curiosity, general health education, evaluation of current symptoms and anonymity of information. Users rated Health-Net favorably. The most commonly reported reasons for non-use were related to lack of health problems, limited time and lack of access to computer facilities. The mean number of ambulatory medical visits decreased 22.5% more in the treatment group than in the control group (P less than 0.05), while hospitalizations did not differ significantly between groups. In addition, perceived self-efficacy for preventing the acquisition of a sexually transmitted disease (STD) and herpes increased 577% (P less than 0.05) and 261% (P less than 0.01) more, respectively, in the treatment group than in the control group. These findings suggest that access to Stanford Health-Net can result in significant health behavior change. The advantages of the network approach make it a potential model for other communities.
Robinson
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TN
Department of Medicine, Children's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115.
D000328:Adult; D001521:Behavior Therapy; D002140:California; D003195:Computer Communication Networks; D003199:Computer Systems; D003194:Computer-Assisted Instruction; D015438:Health Behavior; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011897:Random Allocation; D012648:Self Care / Q000523:psychology; D012749:Sexually Transmitted Diseases / Q000517:prevention & control