title: Understanding views on everyday use of personal health information: Insights from community dwelling older adults.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Older adults apply various strategies to pursue healthy aging, but we know little about their views and use of personal health information to accomplish those ends.
  
  
  METHODS
  As a first step in formulating the role of personal health information management (PHIM) in healthy aging, we explored the perspectives of older adults on health and health information used in their everyday lives through four focus groups with 25 community-dwelling adults aged 60 and over.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found that the concept of wellness-the holistic and multidimensional nature of health and wellbeing-plays prominently in how older adults think about health and health information. Participants expressed wellness from a position of personal strength, rather than health-related deficits, by focusing on wellness activities for staying healthy through: (1) personal health practices, (2) social network support, and (3) residential community engagement.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although these themes involve personal health information, existing PHIM systems that focus on disease management are generally not designed to support wellness activities. Substantial opportunity exists to fill this wellness support gap with innovative health information technology designed for older adults. Findings carry implications for the design of PHIM tools that support healthy aging and methods for engaging older adults as co-producers of this critical support.
authors.affiliation: a Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute, Kaiser Permanente Washington , Seattle , WA , USA.
authors.forename: A L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Hartzler
authors.affiliation: b Department of Health Services, School of Public Health , University of Washington , Seattle , WA , USA.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Osterhage
authors.affiliation: c Biobehavioral Nursing and Health Informatics, School of Nursing , University of Washington , Seattle , WA , USA.|d Biomedical Informatics and Medical Education, School of Medicine , University of Washington , Seattle , WA , USA.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Demiris
authors.affiliation: b Department of Health Services, School of Public Health , University of Washington , Seattle , WA , USA.|e Department of Medicine, Division of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, School of Medicine , University of Washington , Seattle , WA , USA.
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Phelan
authors.affiliation: f Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine , University of Washington , Seattle , WA , USA.|g Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center, Puget Sound VA Medical Center , Seattle , WA , USA.
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Thielke
authors.affiliation: b Department of Health Services, School of Public Health , University of Washington , Seattle , WA , USA.|d Biomedical Informatics and Medical Education, School of Medicine , University of Washington , Seattle , WA , USA.
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Turner
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D055991:Health Records, Personal; D006801:Humans; D057187:Independent Living; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D057240:Patient Preference; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D060756:Social Networking
keywords: Healthy aging; older adults; personal health information management; stakeholder engagement; wellness