title: Using the Internet to provide care for persons living with HIV.
abstract: There are no published reports on ways in which caregivers use the Internet to support people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). Five hundred caregivers were recruited in a 5-week period to complete an online survey of demographic characteristics, Internet use, online health-seeking self-efficacy, and ways they used the Internet to support PLWHA. Caregivers were on average 39 years old, white, heterosexual, highly educated, and Internet-savvy. Most provided informal care only (e.g., as a friend; 78%), with the remainder divided among those who provided care exclusively as part of their job (11%) or in both informally and professionally (11%). Most (72%) respondents visited a general medical website for HIV information, and 44% shared information from the Internet with PLWHA. Compared to informal caregivers, caregivers whose roles were both informal and professional had greater odds of recently sharing information from the Internet with PLWHA (odds ratio [OR] = 2.03) and ever printing off information from a website to give to PLWHA (odds ratio [OR] = 3.87). Professional caregivers had higher odds of ever printing off information from a website to give to PLWHA (OR = 1.87), but lower odds of sending an e-mail with a website link (OR = 0.32) than informal caregivers. These findings suggest that websites providing HIV-related resources should consider the various ways in which caregivers use their content, and how utilization differs by role. More research is needed to understand how people providing care for PLWHA share information and support each other and the impact that doing so has on caregiver burden and treatment outcomes for PLWHA.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55454, USA. horva018@umn.edu
authors.forename: Keith J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Horvath
authors.forename: Cari
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Courtenay-Quirk
authors.forename: Eileen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Harwood
authors.forename: Holly
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fisher
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kachur
authors.forename: Mary
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: McFarlane
authors.forename: Ann
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: O'Leary
authors.forename: B R Simon
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Rosser
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017028:Caregivers; D054626:Consumer Health Information; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D057226:Information Seeking Behavior; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult