Women with chronic conditions such as arthritis are underusing online self-care resources

Barriers to internet use may be preventing chronically ill middle-aged and older women from being as healthy as they otherwise could be, says new research in the Journal of Women’s Health.

Data from 418 women age 44 years and older with at least one chronic condition was analysed: 31% of the women in the study were 65 years and older and 30% had three or more chronic conditions.

Key findings:

• 35% of participants didn’t use the internet;
• Among those who used the internet, fewer than half used it to learn from the experiences of other people with chronic-diseases;
• Among those who used the internet, fewer than 20% took part in online discussions regarding their conditions;
• Internet use for self-care varied depending on factors that included age, the condition(s) a person had, education level and ethnic background.

“It really seemed to be the lower-resourced individuals who weren’t using the internet and thus online resources,” explains Dr Carolyn Mendez-Luck, who is involved in the work. “A significantly larger proportion of non-internet users reported needing help learning what to do to manage their health conditions and needing help learning how to care for their health conditions.

“If you’re older, if you’re a member of a minority group, if you’re less educated, if you’re not working, all of those things work against you and impede your use of the internet; that’s what this research suggests.”

Understanding how women with chronic conditions use the internet, or why they don’t, can inform targeted efforts to increase internet availability, to educate people about online resources, and to tailor internet-based materials to self-care needs.

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