Mattar Andrew A G, Hitzig Sander L, McGillivray Colleen F
Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto , Toronto, Ontario , Canada and.
Disabil Rehabil. 2015;37(15):1362-71. doi: 10.3109/09638288.2014.963708. Epub 2014 Sep 26.
Previous work has shown that information technology (IT), such as personal computers and other digital devices (e.g. tablets, laptops, etc.), software, online resources and hand-held communication tools (e.g. cellphones), has benefits for health and well-being for persons with chronic health conditions. To date, the ways that persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) use IT in their daily activities has not been fully explored. Thus, the purpose of the study was to obtain an in-depth perspective of how people with SCI regularly use IT to gain insight on ways IT can be used to support health and well-being in the community for this population.
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with community-dwelling persons with SCI (N = 10) who identified themselves as frequent-or-daily-users of IT. Qualitative content analysis was used to identify the ways that persons with SCI use personal IT.
Ten themes related to IT use were identified: (1) Modifications allowing access to IT; (2) Convenience of IT and its perceived value; (3) IT as a scheduler/planner; (4) Challenges; (5) Contributions of IT to participation; (6) Access to information; (7) Influence of IT on well-being; (8) IT as a connector; (9) Issues of IT acquisition; and (10) Desires for future devices/technology.
The findings suggest that IT use by people with SCI contributes to general health and well-being, by increasing access to SCI-related health information and opportunity for social participation. Despite the benefits offered by IT, persons with SCI have identified a degree of skepticism about the reliability and applicability of the health information they find online. Future work on developing and implementing IT for health and well-being post-SCI should take into account consumers' perspectives to facilitate uptake. Implications for Rehabilitation There is a need for a more refined understanding of how people with spinal cord injury (SCI) use information technology (IT) in their daily lives in order to understand how IT can support health and well-being post-injury in the community. IT use holds implications for the physical and mental well-being of persons with SCI. IT allows access to a variety of information, and facilitates participation in the community. The enthusiasm for the use of IT is tempered by a degree of skepticism about the reliability and applicability of the health information available online. This highlights the need to raise awareness of existing sources vetted for this population, and to develop content that meets the particular health needs for SCI.
先前的研究表明，信息技术（IT），如个人电脑和其他数字设备（如平板电脑、笔记本电脑等）、软件、在线资源和手持通信工具（如手机），对患有慢性健康问题的人在健康和福祉方面有益。迄今为止，脊髓损伤（SCI）患者在日常活动中使用IT的方式尚未得到充分探索。因此，本研究的目的是深入了解SCI患者如何经常使用IT，以洞察IT可用于支持该人群在社区中的健康和福祉的方式。
对10名自我认定为IT频繁或日常使用者的社区居住SCI患者进行了半结构化访谈。采用定性内容分析法来确定SCI患者使用个人IT的方式。
确定了与IT使用相关的10个主题：（1）允许使用IT的改装；（2）IT的便利性及其感知价值；（3）IT作为日程安排器/计划器；（4）挑战；（5）IT对参与的贡献；（6）信息获取；（7）IT对福祉的影响；（8）IT作为连接工具；（9）IT获取问题；（10）对未来设备/技术的期望。
研究结果表明，SCI患者使用IT有助于总体健康和福祉，通过增加获取SCI相关健康信息的机会和社会参与机会。尽管IT带来了诸多益处，但SCI患者对他们在网上找到的健康信息的可靠性和适用性存在一定程度的怀疑。未来关于为SCI后健康和福祉开发及实施IT的工作应考虑消费者的观点，以促进其采用。对康复的启示需要更深入地了解脊髓损伤（SCI）患者在日常生活中如何使用信息技术（IT），以便理解IT如何支持社区中损伤后的健康和福祉。IT的使用对SCI患者的身心健康有影响。IT允许获取各种信息，并促进社区参与。对IT使用的热情因对在线可用健康信息的可靠性和适用性的一定程度怀疑而有所缓和。这凸显了提高对为该人群审核过的现有资源的认识以及开发满足SCI特定健康需求的内容的必要性。
