Information sources of self-care strategies for persons living with HIV. (March 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Schnall, Rebecca; Liu, Jianfang; Iribarren, Sarah
• Is Part Of: International journal of medical informatics. Volume 111(2018)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 6
• Publication Date: 2018-03
• Subjects: Information source -- Self-care strategies -- Online survey -- HIV; Medical informatics -- Periodicals; Information science -- Periodicals; Computers -- Periodicals; Medical technology -- Periodicals; Medical Informatics -- Periodicals; Technology, Medical -- Periodicals; Computers; Information science; Medical informatics; Medical technology; Electronic journals; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 610.285
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2017.12.002
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1386-5056

Abstract

Highlights: This study provides insights into the information sources for self-care strategies for persons living with HIV. Healthcare professionals, social support and TV ads remain widely used information sources for self-care for persons living with HIV. Different demographic groups use different information sources for identifying self-care strategies. Abstract: Objectives: A number of studies have been conducted to identify the self-care strategies that are used by persons living with chronic illnesses to manage their symptoms, but little work has been done to identify the primary information source for these self-care strategies. Methods: We conducted an anonymous online survey with 1373 persons living with HIV to identify the self-care strategies they use to manage 28 commonly experienced symptoms. Following their report of their symptoms and self-care strategies, we asked an open-ended question to identify where the participant obtained the information. We applied iterative content analysis of the narrative data and multi-nominal regression to identify which demographic factors were significantly related to each information source category. Results: Respondents reported a total of 8539 information sources for their self-care strategies categorized as follows: Common sense/Self-experience, Healthcare professional, Internet, Literature, Multiple Sources, Social Support, and TV ads. Conclusions: We found that respondents with no college education were significantly more likely to report the use of the Internet as the information source for their self-care strategies. On the other hand, males as compared to females were significantly less likely to use the Internet and significantly more likely to use TV ads.