Fernández-Sotos Patricia, Fernández-Caballero Antonio, González Pascual, Aparicio Ana Isabel, Martínez-Gras Isabel, Torio Iosune, Dompablo Mónica, García-Fernández Lorena, Santos José Luis, Rodriguez-Jimenez Roberto
Department of Psychiatry, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Hospital 12 de Octubre (imas12), Madrid, Spain.
CIBERSAM (Biomedical Research Networking Centre in Mental Health), Madrid, Spain.
J Med Internet Res. 2019 Mar 14;21(4):e11824. doi: 10.2196/11824.
Digital technology and social networks are part of everyday life in the current internet age, especially among young people. To date, few studies have been published worldwide on the pattern of use of digital technology devices and applications in patients with early-stage schizophrenia and even fewer comparing them with healthy participants (not using data from general population surveys) from the same demographic areas. In Spain, no such study has been carried out.
The aim of this study was to analyze how patients with early-stage schizophrenia use internet and social networks compared with healthy participants matched by age and gender and also to examine which devices are utilized to access internet resources.
A cross-sectional, multicentric study was carried out through a semistructured interview asking about the use of digital technology devices and internet. The sample comprised 90 patients and 90 healthy participants. The semistructured interview was conducted on 30 outpatients and 30 healthy subjects in each of the 3 different cities (Madrid, Alicante, and Cuenca). Student t test was used for continuous variables and chi-square test for categorical variables. In the case of ordinal variables, nonparametric Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis H tests for independent samples were performed to compare groups.
The results indicated that a large proportion of patients with early-stage schizophrenia have access to different digital devices and use them frequently. In addition, both groups coincide in the order of preference and the purpose for which they use the devices. However, a lower frequency of use of most digital technology devices was detected in patients compared with healthy participants. In the case of some devices, this was due to the impossibility of access and not a lack of interest.
To our knowledge, this is the first study to analyze patterns of internet access and use of digital technology devices and applications in Spanish patients with early-stage schizophrenia compared with healthy participants from the same demographic areas. The results on significant access and use of digital technology and internet shown in this cross-sectional study will allow enhanced and more efficient treatment strategies to be planned, utilizing digital technology devices, for patients with early-stage schizophrenia.
在当前的互联网时代，数字技术和社交网络已成为日常生活的一部分，尤其是在年轻人当中。迄今为止，全球范围内关于早期精神分裂症患者使用数字技术设备及应用模式的研究较少，将其与来自相同人口统计学区域的健康参与者（未使用一般人群调查数据）进行比较的研究更是少之又少。在西班牙，尚未开展此类研究。
本研究旨在分析早期精神分裂症患者与年龄和性别相匹配的健康参与者相比，是如何使用互联网和社交网络的，同时考察使用哪些设备来获取互联网资源。
通过一项半结构化访谈开展了一项横断面多中心研究，询问有关数字技术设备和互联网的使用情况。样本包括90名患者和90名健康参与者。在3个不同城市（马德里、阿利坎特和昆卡），分别对30名门诊患者和30名健康受试者进行了半结构化访谈。连续变量采用学生t检验，分类变量采用卡方检验。对于有序变量，采用独立样本的非参数曼-惠特尼U检验和克鲁斯卡尔-沃利斯H检验来比较组间差异。
结果表明，很大一部分早期精神分裂症患者能够使用不同的数字设备且经常使用。此外，两组在设备使用的偏好顺序和目的方面是一致的。然而，与健康参与者相比，患者使用大多数数字技术设备的频率较低。对于某些设备，这是由于无法获取，而非缺乏兴趣。
据我们所知，这是第一项将西班牙早期精神分裂症患者与来自相同人口统计学区域的健康参与者进行比较，分析其互联网接入模式以及数字技术设备和应用使用情况的研究。这项横断面研究中关于数字技术和互联网的显著接入与使用情况的结果，将有助于为早期精神分裂症患者制定利用数字技术设备的强化且更有效的治疗策略。
