Older Americans unversed in the Internet 'know less about health'

Date: Nov-14-2014 The Internet is a familiar tool of everyday life and an

important source of information, including on health. Except, that is,

for those who find themselves stranded on the wrong side of the

"digital divide." Now, researchers warn that older Americans who are

not online could be sidelined as the Internet's role in providing

health information grows.

Among elderly Americans, those with low health literacy were the least likely to use the Internet, according to the latest study.

Helen Levy, an associate professor at the University of Michigan

School of Public Health in Ann Arbor, led the first ever study to show that older

people's health literacy also predicts how and if they use the

Internet.

She and her colleagues report their findings in the Journal of

General Internal Medicine.

Prof. Levy says like any innovation in health care, health

information technology brings with it not only significant benefits, but

also the risk that the benefits may not be shared equally.

She and her team wanted to investigate this further, especially as

more and more resources are being invested in health information

technology in the US - for example, in electronic medical records.

They wondered, since nobody had explored it yet, whether the

elderly are able and willing to make full use of the new technology. Is

there a link between elderly people's level of

understanding about health - their health literacy - and their use of

the Internet to find information?

Low health literacy may impede use of online health resources

The answer could be important to policymakers and strategists,

since, as Prof. Levy warns:

"Low health literacy may attenuate the effectiveness of web-based

interventions to improve the health of vulnerable populations."

For their study, the team analyzed data from 1,400 participants who took

part in the 2009 and 2010 Health and Retirement Study, a nationally

representative survey of over 20,000 Americans aged 65 and over.

The survey participants had answered questions about how often they

used the Internet, and in particular, how often they used it to find

health and medical information.

The participants had also completed assessments of their health

literacy - by completing the revised Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy

in Medicine questionnaire. And they had also rated how confident they

felt about filling out medical forms.

The results showed that among elderly Americans, those with low

health literacy were the least likely to use the Internet. And when

they did use the Internet, it was not usually to search for health

information.

The researchers found that 31.9% of the participants with a high

level of health literacy used the Internet to get information about

health, compared with only 9.7% of those with low health literacy.

Health literacy predicts what elderly people do once they are

online

The team says health literacy appears to be a significant predictor

of what elderly people do once they are online.

They also found that a person's level of health literacy is a

stronger predictor of whether they use the Internet to find health

information than their level of cognitive functioning.

Prof. Levy says their findings suggest as we increasingly expect

patients to go online for health information, then we need to improve

health literacy among older adults to prevent a widening of the digital

divide in this group.

Meanwhile, Medical News Today recently learned of a series

of studies in The Lancet that warn the health of the world's aging population is

at risk unless more effective strategies are implemented to reduce

chronic illness and poor well-being in the over-60s, who are expected to

total 2 billion by 2050.

Written by Catharine Paddock PhD

Not to be reproduced without permission.

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Courtesy: Medical News Today Note: Any medical information available in this news section is not intended as a substitute for informed medical advice and you should not take any action before consulting with a health care professional.