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Communication Technology Use Young Adults n = 145 Middle Age n = 276 Seniors n = 112 Totals n = 533 P Age, years 21–39 40–64 65–99 Do you have a phone? No phone (% no) 0 4.4 4.7 3.2 Cell phone or landline (% yes) 100.0 95.6 95.3 96.8 .035 Do you have a cell phone? No cell phone (% no) 4.2 16.5 29.2 15.7 Month to month contract (% yes) 47.2 40.8 19.8 38.3 Longer-term contract (% yes) 48.6 42.6 50.9 46.0 <.001 Do you have the same phone number as you had a year ago? No cell phone (% no) 6.5 20.9 33.0 19.8 My number is different now (% yes) 25.0 18.7 5.5 17.5 Yes, my number is the same (% yes) 68.5 60.4 61.5 62.7 <.001 Do you use text messaging on your cell phone? No cell phone (% no) 4.1 17.2 30.3 16.3 No text messaging (% no) 8.3 30.8 58.7 30.4 Yes, I use text messaging (% yes) 87.6 52.0 11.0 53.3 <.001 Do you have a computer at home? (% yes) 74.3 60.4 47.7 61.6 <.001 Do you conduct Internet searches? (% yes) 66.2 48.6 25.9 48.6 <.001 Do you look up health information on the Internet? (% yes) 64.3 47.1 28.4 47.9 <.001 Do you use E-mail? (% yes) 64.8 44.2 33 47.5 <.001 Do you use instant messaging? (% yes) 33.1 15.6 4.5 18.0 <.001 Do you use Facebook or Myspace? (% yes) 57.9 27.9 5.4 31.3 <.001 Do you use YouTube? (% yes) 46.9 21.7 2.7 24.6 <.001 Would you like sending information to your doctor by E-mail? (% yes) 56.6 36.2 16.1 37.5 <.001 Would you like sending information to your doctor by text? (% yes) 35.9 18.8 2.7 20.1 <.001 Would you like sending information to your doctor by Internet? (% yes) 17.9 13.0 4.5 12.6 .005 Would you like receiving your own health information by E-mail? (% yes) 50.3 34.4 18.8 35.5 <.001 Would you like receiving your own health information by text? (% yes) 32.4 18.1 2.7 18.8 <.001 Would you like receiving your own health information by Internet (% yes) 20.7 13.4 4.5 13.5 <.001 Values provided as percentages unless otherwise indicated.
Demographics Descriptive Statistics Sex* Men 175 (32.8) Women 357 (67.0) Age, years (mean [SD]) 50.72 (16.90) Ethnicity† Hispanic 279 (52.3) White 166 (31.1) African American 70 (13.1) Asian 17 (3.2) American Indian 8 (1.5) Survey language* English 477 (90.0) Spanish 51 (10.0) Insurance type† Private insurance 149 (28.0) Medicare 123 (23.1) Medicaid 131 (24.6) County plan 116 (21.8) Self-pay 27 (5.1) Unknown 32 (6.0) Workers' compensation 2 (0.4) - Table 3. Insurance Plan Differences in Communication Technology Access, Use, and Preferences
Communication Technology Use Primary Health Insurance Source Totals (n = 479)* P Private Insurance (n = 117) Medicare (n = 91) Medicaid (n = 128) Self-Pay (n = 27) County Plan (n = 116) Do you have a phone? No phone (% no) 0.9 5.7 3.9 0 5.2 3.6 Cell phone or landline (% yes) 99.1 94.3 96.1 100.0 94.8 96.4 .233 Do you have a cell phone? No cell phone (% no) 6.0 21.6 18.5 11.1 19.5 15.8 Month to month contract (% yes) 20.7 27.3 54.8 51.9 43.4 38.2 Longer-term contract (% yes) 73.3 51.1 26.6 37.0 37.2 45.9 <.001 Do you have the same phone number as a year ago? No cell phone (% no) 9.4 24.7 26.7 18.2 20.0 20.2 My number is different now (% yes) 8.2 8.2 21.8 22.7 23.8 16.8 Yes, my number is the same (% yes) 82.4 67.1 51.5 59.1 56.2 63.0 <.001 Do you use text messaging on your cell phone? No cell phone (% no) 7.7 23.6 20.0 11.1 19.8 17.1 No, no text messaging (% no) 22.2 51.7 30.4 18.5 23.3 30.0 Yes, I use text messaging (% yes) 70.1 24.7 49.6 70.4 56.9 53.0 <.001 Do you have a computer at home? (% yes) 78.6 53.3 46.8 74.1 61.2 61.0 <.001 Do you conduct Internet searches? (% yes) 73.5 31.9 35.2 66.7 45.7 48.2 <.001 Do you look up health information on the Internet? (% yes) 67.8 33.3 39.2 55.6 44.3 47.2 <.001 Do you use E-mail? (% yes) 70.1 41.8 33.6 59.3 39.7 47.0 <.001 Do you use instant messaging? (% yes) 31.6 7.7 9.4 33.3 14.7 17.1 <.001 Do you use Facebook or Myspace? (% yes) 46.2 9.9 26.6 48.1 30.2 30.3 <.001 Do you use YouTube? (% yes) 43.6 6.6 17.2 37.0 22.4 24.0 <.001 Would you like sending information to your doctor by E-mail? (% yes) 65.0 20.9 20.3 40.7 38.8 37.0 <.001 Would you like sending information to your doctor by text? (% yes) 29.9 8.8 20.3 22.2 17.2 19.8 .005 Would you like sending information to your doctor by internet? (% yes) 26.5 7.7 5.5 11.1 12.9 13.2 <.001 Would you like receiving your own health information by e-mail? (% yes) 59.8 23.1 21.1 33.3 33.6 34.7 <.001 Would you like receiving your own health information by text? (% yes) 25.6 9.9 21.1 14.8 17.2 18.8 .056 Would you like receiving your own health information by internet? (% yes) 27.4 7.7 8.6 11.1 12.1 14.0 <.001 Values provided as percentages.
↵* Some missing data.
- Table 4. Ethnicity/Racial Differences in Communication Technology Access, Use, and Preferences
Communication Technology Use Hispanics (n = 273) Non-Hispanic White (n = 163) African American (n = 72) Totals (n = 508)* P Do you have a phone? No phone (% no) 4.0 1.2 5.7 3.4 Cell phone or landline (% yes) 96.0 98.8 94.3 96.6 .143 Do you have a cell phone? No cell phone (% no) 18.8 9.1 20.6 15.9 Month to month contract (% yes) 43.2 28.7 42.6 38.4 Longer-term contract (% yes) 38.0 62.2 36.8 45.7 <.001 Do you have the same phone number as a year ago? No cell phone (% no) 20.9 13.0 28.6 19.6 My number is different now (% yes) 18.5 15.7 18.4 17.7 Yes, my number is the same (% yes) 60.6 71.3 53.1 62.7 .118 Do you use text messaging on your cell phone? No cell phone (% no) 19.0 10.4 21.4 16.6 No, no text messaging (% no) 28.1 36.8 20.0 29.8 Yes, I use text messaging (% yes) 52.9 52.8 58.6 53.6 .024 Do you have a computer at home? (% yes) 52.4 73.8 63.8 60.8 <.001 Do you conduct Internet searches? (% yes) 40.6 60.0 50.0 48.1 <.001 Do you look up health information on the Internet? (% yes) 39.5 60.6 50.0 47.8 <.001 Do you use E-mail? (% yes) 37.1 64.2 47.1 47.2 <.001 Do you use instant messaging? (% yes) 14.0 20.6 24.3 17.5 .060 Do you use Facebook or Myspace? (% yes) 25.2 35.8 41.4 30.8 .008 Do you use YouTube? (% yes) 19.1 27.9 30.0 23.4 .039 Would you like sending information to your doctor by E-mail? (% yes) 30.9 46.1 38.6 36.8 .006 Would you like sending information to your doctor by text? (% yes) 18.7 21.2 22.9 22.1 .672 Would you like sending information to your doctor by internet? (% yes) 10.8 13.3 14.3 12.1 .607 Would you like receiving your own health information by e-mail? (% yes) 27.3 47.9 35.7 35.1 <.001 Would you like receiving your own health information by text? (% yes) 18.0 17.6 25.7 18.9 .292 Would you like receiving your own health information by internet? (% yes) 11.5 13.30 20.0 13.3 .173 ↵* Remaining patients checked “Asian” or “other.” They were not included in this analysis because of small sample sizes.
- Table 5. Logistic Regression Predicting Communication Technology Access, Use, and Preferences
Characteristics Access Use Preferences for … Cell phone Computer Internet Email Text Receiving Email Receiving Internet Sending Email Sending Internet BLOCK 1 Age 0.944* 0.960* 0.939* 0.943* 0.900* 0.956* 0.958* 0.949* 0.970† Male sex‡ — — — — — — — — — Ethnicity (overall effect) — * * * § † — § — Hispanic 0.401§ 0.308* 0.297* 0.258* — 0.392* — 0.434† — African American 0.326§ 0.464§ 0.409§ 0.388† — — — — — Asian — — — — 0.174† — — — — Spanish language — — 0.300† 0.224* 0.212* — — — — Insurance (overall effect) — * * * † * † * * Medicare — — 0.386† — — 0.367† 0.382§ 0.304* 0.343§ Medicaid — 0.221* 0.153* 0.170* 0.271* 0.138* 0.271* 0.091* 0.198* County 0.294§ 0.535‡ 0.370* 0.372* — 0.348*** 0.391† 0.361* 0.471§ Model χ2 (df = 9) 57.24 84.15 136.77 125.38 207.59 99.91 49.20 117.79 35.46 Nagelkerke R2 0.202 0.224 0.339 0.315 0.480 0.266 0.180 0.305 0.136 Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness of fit (P) .482 .900 .835 .232 .118 .935 .440 .596 .432
