Download Use of the Internet by Prenatal Clients for Health Information and its

Use of the Internet by Prenatal Clients for Health Information and its Consequences
Amanda Lai, Lindsay Van Tongeren, Catherine Kline, Angela Towle & William Godolphin
Informed Shared Decision Making Project, Division of Health Care Communication, College of Health Disciplines, University of British Columbia
Background
 The prenatal period is a time of increased
information seeking and decision making.
 How prenatal patients use the Internet as a
source of health information becomes important
as Internet use increases.
 Little is known about the way patients use the
Internet and the effects that this may have on
the health care provider (HCP) – patient
relationship
and
ultimately,
health
consequences for the patient.
 Few studies have been done to characterize
Internet usage in the prenatal population.
Results
Patient Demographics
Age
Preferred Language
Response Rate
121 questionnaires were administered

119 responded

114 were considered complete and included in the
analysis
Level of Education
Number of Current Pregnancy
Current Trimester
Response Rate = 114/121 = 94.2%
Use of Healthcare Providers
19-29 (50%), 30-40 (48%), over 40 (2 %)
English (93%), Cantonese (1%), Mandarin
(2%), Punjabi (1%), Spanish (1%), Others (2%)
No formal education (1%), Some highschool
(1%), Highschool (6%), Some post secondary
(23%), University/college (60%), Graduate
school (10%)
st
nd
rd
1 pregnancy (94%), 2 pregnancy (4%), 3
th
pregnancy (1%), 4 pregnancy (1%)
st
nd
rd
1 trimester (1%), 2 trimester (14%), 3
trimester (85%)
Family doctor (60%), Obstetrician (52%), Doula
(8%), Midwife (3%), Nurse (2%), Others (6%)
Objectives
Key Findings
Prenatal Class Attendees' Sources of Information
a lot
none
 The major reason why prenatal clients are going on-line is to look for more
information on specific topics.
80
 Most prenatal patients report that they often evaluate the quality of online
information for their pregnancy; the most common method of doing so appears to
be by checking for similar information on more than one website.
60
40
20
Cla
s
tal
TV
Bo
ok
s
Int
ern
et
Fa
mi
ly
Ob
ste
tric
Fa
ian
mi
ly D
oc
tor
Fri
en
ds
Ma
ga
zin
es
Do
ula
Mi
dw
ife
Nu
rse
Ne
ws
pa
pe
r
Ot
he
r
se
s
0
Pre
na
One percent of the prenatal patients indicate that they have no internet
access whatsoever.
Prenatal patients are using the Internet as an additional source of health
information. Seventy-seven percent of our patient population with access to the
Internet use it at least once a week for information related to their pregnancy.
100
Study Design
Location
 Douglas College Prenatal Classes, British
Columbia
Patients
 Questionnaires were administered to 141
prenatal patients attending prenatal classes
across the Lower Mainland.
Methods
 A 7 page questionnaire specific to prenatal
patients were derived after a thorough literature
review was conducted.
 Ethics approval was obtained from both the
University of British Columbia and Douglas
College.
 The questionnaire was reviewed by experts and
piloted in a group of 20 patients and modified.
 The final questionnaire was given to 121
patients.
 Data analysis was conducted using SPSS
quantitative analytical software and frequency
tables and cross tabulations were generated.
some
120
Responses (max 114)
 To conduct an exploratory study, through a
questionnaire survey, to describe how prenatal
women use the Internet in regards to the
following questions:
• How important is the Internet relative to other
sources of information and how frequently is it
used?
• What are prenatal patients using the Internet
for?
• How do prenatal patients feel about sharing
on-line health information with their health
care provider?
• How does on-line health information affect the
actions of prenatal patients?
• Are there ways to help prenatal patients in
finding and using on-line information?
Perceptions of the Accuracy of Online Information
 Most of the prenatal patients have changed their behaviour as a result of
finding on-line health information: had a conversation with a family member or
friend (86%), talked to their HCP (79%), visited a HCP (24%) and 29% admitted
to making a health decision without consulting a HCP.
 The majority of patients feel positive about sharing on-line information
with their HCP. In general, they feel more prepared to ask the right questions,
but a few reported feeling as if they wasted their HCP’s time or are worried about
offending them.
 Ninety-nine percent of all patients surveyed indicate some level of
interest in using health care websites recommended by their HCP.
CONCLUSIONS
 Prenatal patients are a unique population with specific needs in
information seeking and gathering.
2%
1%
18%
accurate
sometimes accurate
rarely accurate
don't know
79%
 More research is required to determine the health consequences of
prenatal patients who have made a health decision based on on-line
information without consulting their HCP.
 Having access to on-line health information seems to be beneficial for
most prenatal patients in their interactions with their HCP.
 Prenatal patients are interested in having a list of recommended
websites from their HCP to ensure that they obtain accurate and reliable
health information related to their pregnancy.