Baylor College of Medicine, Center for Research on Women with Disabilities TIRR Memorial Hermann, Spinal Cord Injury and Disability Research Houston, Houston, TX, USA.
Rural Institute for Inclusive Communities and Department of Psychology, University of Montana, Missoula, MT, USA.
Disabil Rehabil. 2023 Aug;45(17):2751-2760. doi: 10.1080/09638288.2022.2105960. Epub 2022 Aug 2.
Access to high quality and accessible online health information (OHI) is critical for reducing disparities, overcoming barriers, and improving the health of women with disabilities. This study aimed to understand women with physical disabilities' use of the Internet to access OHI, most often searched health topics, perceived usefulness of OHI, and self-reported eHealth literacy and challenges in OHI seeking.
We conducted a national online survey with 508 women with physical disabilities who used the Internet.
Respondents utilized a wide variety of OHI resources. They searched a broad array of health and disability-related topics, with bowel/bladder and finding a physician the most highly searched topics. They generally had confidence in their eHealth literacy skills and ability to understand statistics in OHI. Nevertheless, although our sample consisted of a majority of highly educated internet-users, a sizeable percentage found OHI seeking difficult and frustrating, did not find the information very helpful, and had concerns about the quality of information.
This study serves as a call to action to disability and rehabilitation scientists, health care providers, and other health professionals to enhance the availability and accessibility of OHI critical to empowering women with physical disabilities to make well-informed health decisions. Implications for rehabilitationAccess to high quality online health information (OHI) is critical for reducing disparities, overcoming barriers, and improving the health of women with disabilities.Many of the women with disabilities in our study found OHI seeking difficult and frustrating, did not find the information very helpful, and had concerns about the quality of the information.Disability and rehabilitation scientists, health care providers, and public health and health policy professionals need to do more to enhance the availability and accessibility of OHI and resources critical to empowering women with physical disabilities to make well-informed health decisions.Physical medicine and rehabilitation scientists are encouraged to develop and improve assistive technologies needed for accessing OHI, which in turn can promote the independent functioning of people with disabilities.
获取高质量且易于获取的在线健康信息（OHI）对于减少差异、克服障碍以及改善残疾女性的健康状况至关重要。本研究旨在了解身体残疾女性使用互联网获取 OHI 的情况，包括她们最常搜索的健康主题、对 OHI 的有用性感知，以及自我报告的电子健康素养和在寻找 OHI 时面临的挑战。
我们对 508 名使用互联网的身体残疾女性进行了一项全国性的在线调查。
受访者利用了各种各样的 OHI 资源。她们搜索了广泛的健康和残疾相关主题，其中肠道/膀胱和寻找医生是搜索最多的主题。她们普遍对自己的电子健康素养技能和理解 OHI 统计数据的能力有信心。然而，尽管我们的样本由大多数受过高等教育的互联网用户组成，但相当一部分人认为寻找 OHI 既困难又令人沮丧，认为信息帮助不大，并对信息质量表示担忧。
本研究呼吁残疾和康复科学家、医疗保健提供者和其他健康专业人员增强 OHI 的可用性和可及性，这对于增强身体残疾女性做出明智健康决策的能力至关重要。
获取高质量的在线健康信息（OHI）对于减少差异、克服障碍以及改善残疾女性的健康状况至关重要。
在我们的研究中，许多身体残疾女性发现寻找 OHI 既困难又令人沮丧，认为信息帮助不大，并对信息质量表示担忧。
残疾和康复科学家、医疗保健提供者以及公共卫生和健康政策专业人员需要做更多工作来增强 OHI 的可用性和可及性，并提供关键资源，以增强身体残疾女性做出明智健康决策的能力。
鼓励物理医学和康复科学家开发和改进获取 OHI 所需的辅助技术，这反过来又可以促进残疾人的独立功能。
