Capacity and willingness of patients with chronic noncommunicable diseases to use information technology to help manage their condition: a cross-sectional study

Abstract Background Health care providers have shown considerable interest in using information technologies such as email, text messages and video conferencing to facilitate the management of chronic noncommunicable diseases such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus and vascular disease. We sought to...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Published in:	CMAJ open Vol. 2; no. 2; pp. E51 - E59
Main Authors:	Afshar, Arash Ehteshami, MD, Weaver, Robert G., MSc, Lin, Meng, MSc, Allan, Michael, MD, Ronksley, Paul E., PhD, Sanmartin, Claudia, PhD, Lewanczuk, Richard, MD, Rosenberg, Mark, PhD, Manns, Braden, MD MSc, Hemmelgarn, Brenda, MD PhD, Tonelli, Marcello, MD SM, on behalf of the Interdisciplinary Chronic Disease Collaboration
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Canada Canadian Medical Association 16-04-2014
Subjects:	Internal Medicine
Online Access:	Get full text
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

Description
Summary:	Abstract Background Health care providers have shown considerable interest in using information technologies such as email, text messages and video conferencing to facilitate the management of chronic noncommunicable diseases such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus and vascular disease. We sought to determine whether these technologies are available and appealing to the target population. Methods We analyzed cross-sectional data from a computer-assisted telephone survey, conducted by Statistics Canada in February and March 2012, of western Canadian adults with at least 1 chronic condition. Survey respondents were asked about their capacity (e.g., “Do you own a mobile phone?”) and willingness to use each of 3 information technologies (email, text messages and video conferencing) to interact with health care providers. For all analyses, Statistics Canada’s calibrated design weights and bootstrap weights were used to obtain population-level point estimates for proportions and odds ratios. Results In total, 1849 (79.8%) of 2316 eligible people participated. Of the 1849 participants, 81.9% had hypertension, 26.2% had diabetes, 21.4% had heart disease, and 7.9% had stroke; 32.2% had more than 1 of the 4 chronic conditions of interest. High proportions of respondents owned a computer with Internet access (76.4%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 73.3%–79.3%) or a mobile phone (73.9%, 95% CI 70.7%–76.8%). About two-thirds of respondents were interested in using email to interact with a specialist (66.3%, 95% CI 63.0%–69.5%); respondents were less enthusiastic about using text messages (44.9%, 95% CI 41.2%–48.7%). Enthusiasm for video conferencing was more pronounced among those residing further from medical specialists than among those living closer. Among respondents who were potentially interested in video conferencing, almost 50% of remote dwellers would use this technology if it saved more than 60 minutes of travel time. Interpretation Many people were interested in using electronic technologies, especially video conferencing and email-based methods, to help manage their chronic condition. The effectiveness and cost implications of using email and video conferencing in the management of chronic disease deserve further consideration.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 Competing interests:None declared. Funding:This work was funded by an interdisciplinary team grant to the Interdisciplinary Chronic Disease Collaboration from Alberta Innovates-Health Solutions. The views expressed in this paper are solely those of the authors and do not reflect those of Statistics Canada. Contributors:Arash Ehteshami Afshar, Meng Lin, Braden Manns, Brenda Hemmelgarn and Marcello Tonelli contributed to study conception and design and to the acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data. Robert Weaver, Michael Allan, Paul E Ronksley, Claudia Sanmartin, Richard Lewanczuk and Mark Rosenberg also contributed to the interpretation of the data. All authors contributed to drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content and provided final approval of the version to be published. Marcello Tonelli is the study guarantor.
ISSN:	2291-0026 2291-0026
DOI:	10.9778/cmajo.20130070