Is Internet use associated with anxiety in patients with and at risk for cardiomyopathy?

Does internet use benefit health?-PSM-DID evidence from China's CHARLS

Amid the increasing global internet penetration, understanding the impact of internet use on residents' health is crucial. This aids in formulating more effective health policies and provides empirical evidence for promoting health equity and improving overall public health. Drawing on the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), this paper employs the Propensity Score Matching-Difference in Differences (PSM-DID) method to examine the impact of the internet on individual health and further explores the pathways through which the internet affects health. We introduce the research background and significance in the introduction. Then, in the theoretical analysis, it incorporates internet variables into the Becker health demand model to analyze changes in health demand and impact pathways. The empirical analysis tests the theoretical findings, leading to empirical results. Finally, the study discusses the results and provides relevant recommendations. The findings indicate significant positive effects of the internet on both physical and psychological health. These effects are realized through reducing health information asymmetry, lowering health costs, and increasing exposure to health-promoting environments. In the heterogeneity analysis, economic-related internet content shows a significant positive impact on resident health. Intensive internet use adversely affects psychological health. The beneficial effects of the internet on health are more pronounced among older individuals, those covered by medical insurance, and regions with higher levels of digital economy. Based on these findings, the study offers policy recommendations concerning individuals' internet use patterns, the digital evolution of the healthcare industry, and government infrastructure development.

Does internet use benefit the mental health of older adults? Empirical evidence from the China health and retirement longitudinal study

The mental health (MH) of older adults is a prominent public health concern. However, research regarding the impact of emerging Internet use on MH among older adults remains limited, particularly in transitional economies experiencing a rapidly aging population such as China. Thus, to address this research gap, this study uses data from the 2013-2018 waves of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. To investigate the causal relationship between Internet use and MH among older adults and explore the underlying channels through which this relationship operates. The results reveal a notable positive association between Internet use and MH among older adults. Furthermore, the study highlights social interaction, social trust, traveling expenses, and healthy habits as crucial channels through which Internet use can impact MH among older adults. The analysis also reveals how Internet use demonstrates a stronger positive effect on older individuals who have fewer chronic diseases and live with their offspring compared with their counterparts. These findings have significant policy implications, which thus emphasizes the need to enhance Internet use among older adults as a means of improving their MH.

Is There a Relationship Between Online Health Information Seeking and Health Anxiety? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

The internet has revolutionized how we live, providing unprecedented convenience and up-to-date information. Consequently, an increasing number of individuals are turning to the internet for health-related information, despite research suggesting a correlation between this behavior and health anxiety. Therefore, drawing on cognitive - behavioral theory, we explore the link between online health information seeking and health anxiety via a systematic review and meta-analysis of cross-sectional studies. Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis, we ran searches in multiple databases, including PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Elsevier/Science Direct, Cochrane Database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, VIP Chinese Database, and Wanfang Data. Our searches identified 16 studies eligible for review, involving 4,920 participants across seven countries. The random-effects meta-analysis revealed a significant positive correlation between online health information seeking and health anxiety (r = 0.28, 95% confidence interval [0.16, 0.41], p < .0001), despite considerable heterogeneity. Furthermore, meta-regression analysis demonstrated that the identity characteristics of the sample, female percentage, sample size, and country all contributed to the heterogeneity across studies. Overall, this meta-analysis provides support for the association between online health information seeking and health anxiety, and helps to elucidate the cognitive - behavioral theory underpinning this phenomenon.

Internet use and health status among older adults: The mediating role of social participation

Background

The acceleration of population aging and the arrival of the informatization make more and more older adults use the Internet, and its use is having an impact on their health. However, the relationship between internet use and the health of older adults and the mechanism of the effect of internet use on the health are not very clear.

Methods

Multiple linear regression models to explore the correlation between internet use and health status in the 3,141 individuals aged ≥60 years were used. Propensity score matching (PSM) method was used to test the robustness of the regression results. In addition, sequential recursive models was used to examine the mediating effect of social participation on the relationship between internet use and health status.

Results and discussion

We found a significant positive relationship between internet use and health status, and social participation mediated the relationship between internet use and health status. In addition, the effect of internet use on health status was different among older adults in rural and urban areas.

Conclusions

The development and application of internet products adapted to the development of an aging society should be accelerated to meet their needs for continued socialization. The forms and activities of social participation for the elderly groups should be enriched and public service internet usage training seminars should be conducted to improve internet skills.

The Impact of Digital Economy on Residents' Health: Based on the Perspective of Population Ageing

This paper uses panel data from inland provinces of China to perform a fixed effect regression and finds that the development of the digital economy has a significant promotional effect on the health of residents. Then, the population ageing rate is further used as a threshold variable for a threshold regression, and the relationship between the development of the digital economy and the health of residents from the perspective of ageing is discussed. The empirical results show that the ageing of the population will reduce the role of the digital economy in promoting residents' health. There is a non-linear single threshold effect between the development of the digital economy and residents' health indicators. In areas of China with a better developed digital economy, when the ageing rate exceeds the threshold, the positive impact of the development of the digital economy on population health has increased compared with the population ageing below the threshold. These asymmetric developments are closely related to economic development, historical and cultural factors, and policies formulated by the government. Therefore, as the digital economy continues to advance, the government should also provide health services fairly and efficiently, and formulate effective Internet assistance policies for the elderly so that the development of the digital economy can more comprehensively promote the health of residents of all ages.

Patient experiences with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: a conceptual model of symptoms and impacts on quality of life

Background

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a primary myocardial disorder defined by left ventricular hypertrophy that cannot be explained by another cardiac or systemic disease. There is a general lack of knowledge about patients’ perspectives on the symptoms and day-to-day limitations they experience as a result of HCM. We therefore sought an in-depth understanding of patients’ experiences of obstructive (oHCM) and nonobstructive (nHCM) forms of the disease, including symptoms and their quality of life impacts, and to develop a conceptual model to capture them.

Methods

Development of the HCM conceptual model involved a web-based survey to capture patients’ insights, a targeted literature review (which included relevant guidelines and patient advocacy websites), one-to-one interviews with clinical experts, and one-to-one qualitative concept elicitation interviews with patients. Key symptoms and their impacts most important to patients’ experiences were identified and used to develop a conceptual model of the patient experience with HCM.

Results

The HCM symptoms reported by patient interviewees (n = 27) were largely consistent with findings from the patient web survey (n = 444), literature review, and interviews with three expert clinicians. The symptoms most commonly reported in patient interviews included tiredness (89%), shortness of breath (89%), shortness of breath with physical activity (89%), and dizziness/light-headedness (89%). Other symptoms commonly reported included chest pain (angina) (70%), chest pain (angina) with physical exertion (70%), and palpitations (fluttering or rapid heartbeat) (81%). The most commonly reported impacts of HCM symptoms on patients’ lives included limitations to physical activities (78%), emotional impacts, including feeling anxious or depressed (78%), and impacts on work (63%). Symptoms and impacts were similar for both oHCM and nHCM.

Conclusions

A conceptual model was developed, which identifies the core symptoms that patients with oHCM and nHCM reported as most frequent and most important: shortness of breath, palpitations, fatigue/tiredness, dizziness/light-headedness, and chest pain, as well as the impacts those symptoms have on patients’ lives. This HCM conceptual model reflecting patients’ experiences and perspectives was used in the development of a patient-reported outcomes instrument for use in clinical trials and it may also help inform the clinical management of HCM.

Effect of Online Health Information Seeking on Anxiety in Hospitalized Pregnant Women: Cohort Study

Background

There are approximately 1,000,000 pregnant women at high risk for obstetric complications per year, more than half of whom require hospitalization.

Objective

The aim of this study was to determine the relation between online health information seeking and anxiety levels in a sample of hospitalized woman with pregnancy-related complications.

Methods

A sample of 105 pregnant women hospitalized in northern Italy, all with an obstetric complication diagnosis, completed different questionnaires: Use of Internet Health-information (UIH) questionnaire about use of the internet, EuroQOL 5 dimensions (EQ-5D) questionnaire on quality of life, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) questionnaire measuring general anxiety levels, and a questionnaire about critical events occurring during hospitalization.

Results

Overall, 98/105 (93.3%) of the women used the internet at home to obtain nonspecific information about health in general and 95/105 (90.5%) of the women used the internet to specifically search for information related to their obstetric disease. Online health information-seeking behavior substantially decreased the self-reported anxiety levels (P=.008).

Conclusions

Web browsing for health information was associated with anxiety reduction, suggesting that the internet can be a useful instrument in supporting professional intervention to control and possibly reduce discomfort and anxiety for women during complicated pregnancies.

Health information seeking behaviour: a concept analysis

BACKGROUND

In 2007, Lambert and Loiselle conducted an extensive concept analysis of the term health information seeking behaviour (HISB) to examine the concept's level of maturity and critically analyse its characteristics. Since their groundbreaking work, HISB has evolved with the proliferation of ICTs. The Internet is now a common and often preferred medium for the pursuit of health information.

OBJECTIVES

The previous analysis spanned 42 years of literature; this article describes an analysis of the last 10 years of literature on HISB and how online seeking has caused the concept to evolve in the literature.

METHODS

This study used the concept analysis methodology employed by Lambert and Loiselle in the original analysis. It also included a systematic search conducted in five databases to identify studies from 2007 to 2017, using similar inclusion criteria from the original study.

RESULTS

Of the more than 500 articles retrieved, 85 journal articles met the inclusion criteria. Consistent with the original work, articles that included outcomes were identified as either behavioural or cognitive.

CONCLUSION

Most of the attention of the works studied focused on individuals and their information source preferences. This HISB analysis can be incorporated with studies to understand how various communities seek information in online versus non-online contexts.

The Impact of Individuals' Attitudes Toward Health Websites on Their Perceived Quality of Health Information: An Empirical Study

Background: A growing number of patients have increasingly used health websites to search and gather health information. Nevertheless, few studies have focused on the driving factors of internet health information quality from the perspective of psychology. Accordingly, this study explores how the attitudes of individuals toward health websites affect their perceived quality of internet health information through the mediation of seeking behavior on treatment information by employing regulatory focus theory. Materials and Methods: We defined six hypotheses that both trust in health websites and expectancy of health websites have a positive impact on emerging and conservative treatment-related online health information seeking; emerging treatment seeking has a negative impact on internet health information quality; and conservative treatment seeking has a positive impact on internet health information quality. Emerging treatment refers to some therapies based on new technologies or research, which is barely used, whereas conservative treatment is more common among the medical field. An online survey involving 336 valid participants was conducted in China. In the research model, all variables were measured using multiple-item scales, and structural equation modeling was employed for testing the hypotheses. Results: The expectancy of health websites significantly affects conservative and emerging treatment-related online health information seeking, but trust in health websites does not. Moreover, trust in health websites strongly affects the expectancy of health websites, and attitudes toward health websites have a strong effect on conservative treatment-related online information seeking. The effect of conservative treatment-related online health information seeking was considerably larger than that of emerging treatment-related online health information seeking on perceived quality of internet health information. Conclusions: From the perspective of health websites operators and public hospitals, conservative treatment and online service might be worth providing and improving. Cooperation between health websites and hospitals might be a good choice.

Insights Into Tweets Associated With Congenital Heart Disease

The use of Twitter in healthcare has allowed healthcare professionals the opportunity to break down boundaries with patients. Previous Twitter studies relating to cardiology have explored features of tweets associated with professional organisations and journals focusing on cardiology. However, there have been few studies into tweets associated with congenital heart disease (CHD). This article shows the extracted and analysed study of 2,854 tweets associated with congenital heart disease. The results highlighted that the presence of a higher number of URLs, hashtags or followers didn't lead to a high number of retweets. Content analysis was carried out on 250 randomly selected tweets from the sample. Analysis of tweet content found that information was shared rather than being sought, with content sharing being the most popular style of tweet. This highlighted the power of Twitter in offering access to support to CHD suffers and families via an online platform. Support exists in various means, whether it is sharing experiences or learning more about CHD health campaigns.

All that Glitters Is not Gold: Consumer Health Informatics and Education in the Era of Social Media and Health Apps. Findings from the Yearbook 2016 Section on Consumer Health Informatics

OBJECTIVE

To summarize the state of the art published during the year 2015 in the areas related to consumer health informatics and education with a special emphasis on unintended consequences of applying mobile and social media technologies in that domain.

METHODS

We conducted a systematic review of articles published in PubMed with a predefined set of queries, which lead to the selection of over 700 potential relevant articles. Section editors screened those papers on the title, abstract, and finally complete paper basis, taking into account the papers' relevance for the section topic. The 15 most representative papers were finally selected by consensus between the two section editors and submitted for full review and scoring to external reviewers and the yearbook editors. Based on the final scoring, section editors selected the best five papers.

RESULTS

The five best papers can be grouped in two major areas: 1) Digital health literacy and 2) Quality and safety concerns. Regarding health literacy issues of patients with chronic conditions such as asthma, online interventions should rather focus on changing patient beliefs about the disease than on supporting them in the management of their pathology since personally controlled health management systems do not show expected benefits,. Nevertheless, encouraging and training chronic patients for an active online health information-seeking behaviour substantially decreases state anxiety level. Regarding safety and privacy issues, even recommended health-related apps available on mobile phones do not guarantee personal data protection. Furthermore, the analysis indicated that patients undergoing Internet interventions experienced at least one adverse event that might be related to treatment. At least, predictive factors have been identified in order to credit or not a health rumour.

CONCLUSIONS

Trusting digital and connected health can be achieved if patients, health care professionals, and industrials build a shared model of health data management integrating ethics rules. Only increasing efforts in education with regards of digital health would help reach this goal., This would not resolve all frauds and security issues but at least improve their detection.