Characteristics Associated With Facebook Use and Interest in Digital Disease Support Among Older Adults With Atrial Fibrillation: Cross-Sectional Analysis of Baseline Data From the Systematic Assessment of Geriatric Elements in Atrial Fibrillation (SAGE-AF) Cohort
Authors
Waring, Molly E.Hills, Mellanie T.
Lessard, Darleen M.
Saczynski, Jane S.
Libby, Brooke A.
Holovatska, Marta M.
Kapoor, Alok
Kiefe, Catarina I.
McManus, David D.
UMass Chan Affiliations
Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of MedicineDivision of Hospital Medicine, Department of Medicine
Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences
Document Type
Journal ArticlePublication Date
2019-11-14Keywords
atrial fibrillationinformation seeking behavior
social media
Cardiology
Cardiovascular Diseases
Geriatrics
Health Information Technology
Health Services Administration
Health Services Research
Social Media
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
BACKGROUND: Online support groups for atrial fibrillation (AF) and apps to detect and manage AF exist, but the scientific literature does not describe which patients are interested in digital disease support. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to describe characteristics associated with Facebook use and interest in digital disease support among older patients with AF who used the internet. METHODS: We used baseline data from the Systematic Assessment of Geriatric Elements in Atrial Fibrillation (SAGE-AF), a prospective cohort of older adults ( > /=65 years) with AF at high stroke risk. Participants self-reported demographics, clinical characteristics, and Facebook and technology use. Online patients (internet use in the past 4 weeks) were asked whether they would be interested in participating in an online support AF community. Mobile users (owns smartphone and/or tablet) were asked about interest in communicating with their health care team about their AF-related health using a secure app. Logistic regression models identified crude and multivariable predictors of Facebook use and interest in digital disease support. RESULTS: Online patients (N=816) were aged 74.2 (SD 6.6) years, 47.8% (390/816) were female, and 91.1% (743/816) were non-Hispanic white. Roughly half (52.5%; 428/816) used Facebook. Facebook use was more common among women (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 2.21, 95% CI 1.66-2.95) and patients with mild to severe depressive symptoms (aOR 1.50, 95% CI 1.08-2.10) and less common among patients aged > /=85 years (aOR 0.27, 95% CI 0.15-0.48). Forty percent (40.4%; 330/816) reported interest in an online AF patient community. Interest in an online AF patient community was more common among online patients with some college/trade school or Bachelors/graduate school (aOR 1.70, 95% CI 1.10-2.61 and aOR 1.82, 95% CI 1.13-2.92, respectively), obesity (aOR 1.65, 95% CI 1.08-2.52), online health information seeking at most weekly or multiple times per week (aOR 1.84, 95% CI 1.32-2.56 and aOR 2.78, 95% CI 1.86-4.16, respectively), and daily Facebook use (aOR 1.76, 95% CI 1.26-2.46). Among mobile users, 51.8% (324/626) reported interest in communicating with their health care team via a mobile app. Interest in app-mediated communication was less likely among women (aOR 0.48, 95% CI 0.34-0.68) and more common among online patients who had completed trade school/some college versus high school/General Educational Development (aOR 1.95, 95% CI 1.17-3.22), sought online health information at most weekly or multiple times per week (aOR 1.86, 95% CI 1.27-2.74 and aOR 2.24, 95% CI 1.39-3.62, respectively), and had health-related apps (aOR 3.92, 95% CI 2.62-5.86). CONCLUSIONS: Among older adults with AF who use the internet, technology use and demographics are associated with interest in digital disease support. Clinics and health care providers may wish to encourage patients to join an existing online support community for AF and explore opportunities for app-mediated patient-provider communication.Source
JMIR Cardio. 2019 Nov 14;3(2):e15320. doi: 10.2196/15320. Link to article on publisher's site
DOI
10.2196/15320Permanent Link to this Item
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/41279PubMed ID
31758791Related Resources
Rights
© Molly E. Waring, Mellanie T Hills, Darleen M. Lessard, Jane S. Saczynski, Brooke A. Libby, Marta M. Holovatska, Alok Kapoor, Catarina I. Kiefe, David D. McManus. Originally published in JMIR Cardio (http://cardio.jmir.org), 11.11.2019. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Cardio, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://cardio.jmir.org, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.Distribution License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.2196/15320
Scopus Count
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as © Molly E. Waring, Mellanie T Hills, Darleen M. Lessard, Jane S. Saczynski, Brooke A. Libby, Marta M. Holovatska, Alok Kapoor, Catarina I. Kiefe, David D. McManus. Originally published in JMIR Cardio (http://cardio.jmir.org), 11.11.2019. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Cardio, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://cardio.jmir.org, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.