title: Willingness of Patients to Use Computers for Health Communication and Monitoring Following Myocardial Infarction.
abstract: We describe the computer use characteristics of 406 post-myocardial infarction (MI) patients and their willingness to engage online for health communication and monitoring. Most participants were computer users (n = 259; 63.8%) and half (n = 209; 51.5%) read health information online at least monthly. However, most participants did not go online to track health conditions (n = 283; 69.7%), look at medical records (n = 287; 70.7%), or e-mail doctors (n = 351; 86.5%). Most participants would consider using a Web site to e-mail doctors (n = 275; 67.7%), share medical information with doctors (n = 302; 74.4%), send biological data to their doctor (n = 308; 75.9%), look at medical records (n = 321; 79.1%), track health conditions (n = 331; 81.5%), and read about health conditions (n = 332; 81.8%). Sharing health information online with family members (n = 181; 44.6%) or for support groups (n = 223; 54.9%) was not of much interest. Most post-MI participants reported they were interested in communicating with their provider and tracking their health conditions online. Because patients with a history of MI tend to be older and are disproportionately minority, researchers and clinicians must be careful to design interventions that embrace post-MI patients of diverse backgrounds that both improve their access to care and health outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Author Affiliations: Center for Health Services Research in Primary Care, Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center (Drs Shaw, Zullig, Crowley, and Bosworth and Ms Lindquist); School of Nursing (Drs Shaw and Bosworth); Department of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine (Drs Zullig and Bosworth); Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology (Dr Crowley); Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics (Dr Grambow); Duke Clinical Research Institute (Drs Shah and Peterson); Division of Cardiology (Dr Peterson); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and School of Nursing (Dr Bosworth), Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Ryan J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Shaw
authors.forename: Leah L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Zullig
authors.forename: Matthew J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Crowley
authors.forename: Steven C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Grambow
authors.forename: Jennifer H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Lindquist
authors.forename: Bimal R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Shah
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Peterson
authors.forename: Hayden B
authors.initials: HB
authors.lastname: Bosworth
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001292:Attitude to Computers; D003201:Computers / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D058015:Health Communication; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000628:therapy; D009657:North Carolina; D033283:Patient Access to Records / Q000523:psychology; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*