Chronically ill women who don't use the internet may struggle with worse health, a new study finds.
"A significantly larger proportion of non-internet users reported needing help learning what to do to manage their health conditions and needing help learning how to care for their health conditions," said researcher Carolyn Mendez-Luck. She's an assistant professor in the School of Social and Behavioral Health Sciences at Oregon State University.
She and her colleagues analyzed information provided by hundreds of American women aged 44 and older with at least one chronic condition. These included heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, arthritis, asthma, emphysema and anxiety.
More than one-third didn't use the internet. And fewer than half of those who did have access used the web to learn from others with a chronic disease, the researchers found.
Also, fewer than 1 in 5 said they took part in online chats about their conditions, according to the study.
Self-care, including the use of internet resources, is essential for managing chronic illnesses, the researchers pointed out.
They said the findings show the importance of increased online access to older, less-advantaged women.
"We want people to be able to optimize their health," Mendez-Luck said in a university news release.
[For more of this story go to https://consumer.healthday.com...ne-tools-716955.html]
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