Health Web sites for teens

An online adolescent message board discussion about the internet: Use for pain

Health-care systems seek to advance their care to adolescents through the online provision of information and support. An online, moderated, asynchronous discussion board called Let's Chat Pain was created to recruit adolescent users of online content for pain to a discussion about pain coping and associated Internet use. Participants were asked about everyday pain coping and the role they judge online information to play in this coping. They were asked about determinations of website reliability and validity for health but especially for help with pain problems. Themes around adolescent trust in online websites for pain and research are explored, in addition to inhibiting and disinhibiting factors associated with the Internet use for health. We found users to mistrust online content even when they know it to be valid. Further study is needed to assess if there are ways of instilling confidence in pain information presented online for this group.

Measuring media use in college students with and without human immunodeficiency virus infection

INTRODUCTION

Media applications have shown promise for health education. The aims of this study were to develop and evaluate a media survey measure and compare media use among college students with and without human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection.

METHODS

Using a cross-sectional, descriptive design, a convenience sample of college students (N = 53) were recruited. Psychometric testing of the media instrument was performed, and the tool was then used to compare media use among HIV-infected undergraduates (n = 15), other undergraduates (n = 23), and nursing students (n = 15).

RESULTS

Psychometric testing of the media instrument demonstrated a high degree of reliability (intraclass correlation = .998; 95% confidence intervals = .997, .999). All respondents had computers with Internet access and cellular phones. Among HIV-infected undergraduate students, 86.7% reported spending 5 minutes or more viewing television during the previous 24 hours outside of school and or work, in comparison with 34.8% of the other undergraduate students with no known chronic illness and 46.7% of the nursing students (p = .002 and .05, respectively). Preferred modes to access health information and communicate with health care providers for all respondents were the Internet (86.8%) and telephone (62.3%), respectively.

DISCUSSION

Assessment of media use among adolescents and young adults will aid in planning for their health education needs.

Searching the internet for help with pain: adolescent search, coping, and medication behaviour

OBJECTIVES

To explore a community sample of adolescents for engagement with online pain resources. To assess if the use of the Internet to search for health information correlated with measures of coping, risk taking, catastrophizing about pain, and engaging in the self-management of pain.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional online study of community-based adolescents (n = 105) recruited via schools to examine their use of the Internet to seek pain-related information.

METHODS

Adolescents completed questionnaires of pain coping, catastrophic thinking, risk-taking behaviour, and medication use. Descriptive analyses were undertaken on event rates of pertinent behaviours, principally on information seeking and pain management behaviour. Correlational analyses were undertaken between coping and information seeking, and medication use.

RESULTS

Few participants engaged in online pain information seeking. Those who did were more likely to be female and scored higher on medication use, catastrophizing, risk taking, and the total score on the Pain Coping Questionnaire.

CONCLUSIONS

Although adolescents are high users of the Internet, paradoxically they do not appear to use the Internet for information about pain and pain management. Further research should assess inhibitory and disinhibitory factors associated with information seeking about pain and chronic illness on the Internet.

STATEMENT OF CONTRIBUTION

What is already known on this subject? Internet use in adolescents is common, mobile, and displays a level of technical awareness unparalleled by adults. The internet is postulated in previous research to present a platform for the delivery of health care, particularly information to aid health decision-making for young people. What does this study add? This study explores how adolescents use the internet to look for health information, particularly on pain and where this falls in a general profile of coping with illness. Interestingly and counterintuitively, adolescents did not use the internet to look for health or pain information. We hypothesize that there may be something about information on pain management that does not readily transfer to the digital world in a way that is useful to adolescent users.

Case study: ethical guidance for pediatric e-health research using examples from pain research with adolescents

OBJECTIVE

The Internet is a frequently used platform for research in pediatric and health psychology. However, there is little pragmatic guidance as to ethical best practice of this research. The absence of guidance is particularly prominent for online research with children. Our objective is to outline ethical issues in e-health research with children and adolescents using two exemplar studies in pediatric pain research.

METHODS

The first study is an asynchronous message board discussion amongst teenagers with pain who are frequent internet users.The second study is a web-based behavioral intervention for the management of adolescent pain.

RESULTS

Each exemplar study is discussed in the context of specific ethical considerations related to recruitment, informed consent and debriefing, privacy and confidentiality, and participant safety. Ethical issues regarding the evaluation of online psychological interventions are also discussed.

CONCLUSIONS

Guidance on optimal ethical practice in e-health research is summarized.