Mamoh Ufuoma N, Salia Soziema J, Atarere Joseph O, Ndakotsu Andrew K, Jaller Alejandro, Weisman David S
Department of Internal Medicine, MedStar Union Memorial Hospital, Baltimore, MD, USA.
J Community Hosp Intern Med Perspect. 2025 Jul 3;15(4):1-7. doi: 10.55729/2000-9666.1506. eCollection 2025.
Research on digital health tools (DHT) use in rheumatologic disease (RD) patients is lacking.
Data from the 2017 and 2018 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) were used to compare DHT ownership and perceived usefulness between individuals with and without RD and to evaluate how health applications usage influenced health behaviors in RD patients.
No significant differences in smartphone or health applications ownership were found between the groups. Among RD patients, older males and those with lower incomes were less likely to use DHT. DHT users reported better communication with healthcare providers, but no significant impact on health behaviors.
Females, individuals <65 years, and those with higher annual income had higher odds of health applications usage. DHT facilitated better communication between patients with RD and healthcare providers. DHT tailored for RD are readily available but remain underutilized and warrant further exploration to improve health outcomes in this population.
目前缺乏关于数字健康工具（DHT）在风湿病（RD）患者中使用情况的研究。
利用2017年和2018年美国国家健康信息趋势调查（HINTS）的数据，比较患有和未患有RD的个体之间DHT的拥有情况和感知有用性，并评估健康应用程序的使用如何影响RD患者的健康行为。
两组之间在智能手机或健康应用程序的拥有情况上未发现显著差异。在RD患者中，老年男性和低收入者使用DHT的可能性较小。DHT使用者报告称与医疗服务提供者的沟通更好，但对健康行为没有显著影响。
女性、65岁以下个体以及年收入较高者使用健康应用程序的几率更高。DHT促进了RD患者与医疗服务提供者之间的更好沟通。为RD量身定制的DHT很容易获得，但仍未得到充分利用，需要进一步探索以改善该人群的健康状况。
