Web Becoming Avenue to Improve Health Care Delivery for Low-Income Groups

Web becoming avenue to improve health care delivery for low-income groups

Boston -A survey of low-income families in an urban pediatric teaching hospital's primary care setting concluded that 63 percent of these families had access to computers, with 37 percent having a computer at home. Forty-one percent of these families were able to access the World Wide Web - 23 percent from their homes. The survey, conducted at Children's Hospital in Boston, measured the access capabilities of parents with limited resources in order to determine the feasibility of using the World Wide Web as an additional vehicle for delivering pediatric health care information.

Of the 135 families surveyed by Dilek A. Bishku, M.D., MSc., fellow in Medicine; Kenneth D. Mandl, M.D., M.P.H., Emergency Services; Charles J. Homer, M.D., M.P.H., General Pediatrics; and Isaac S. Kohane, M.D., Ph.D., Endocrinology, all of Children's Hospital, 133 were women with a mean age of 27.6 years. Fifty-five percent had a high school education or less, and 13 percent had college or postgraduate degrees. Incomes under $15,000 per year were reported by 54 percent of the group, with 14 percent reporting incomes over $30,000.

According to the survey, when families were questioned about the skills required to use the Web, 68 percent reported being able to do word processing, 48 percent able to browse the Web, and 38 percent able to correspond with e-mail.

Forty-four percent of the group searched the Web seeking medical advice, 43 percent browsed for fun and 28 percent used e-mail regularly. Rates for each of these activities were similar between the lower and higher income groups. The lower-income group visited medical sites and child care parenting sites at similar rates to parents from the higher-income group.

The survey, conducted in November 1997, asked parents about their income, education, computer and Web access at home and elsewhere, as well as online activities and skills necessary for using the Web. One-hundred-fifty parents were surveyed and 135 completed the survey.

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