Abstract
Background: eHealth technologies have been found to facilitate health-promoting practices among cancer survivors with BMI in overweight or obese categories; however, little is known about their engagement with eHealth to promote weight management and facilitate patient-clinician communication. Objective: The objective of this study was to determine whether eHealth use was associated with sociodemographic characteristics, as well as medical history and experiences (ie, patient-related factors) among cancer survivors with BMI in overweight or obese categories. Methods: Data were analyzed from a nationally representative cross-sectional survey (National Cancer Institute’s Health Information National Trends Survey). Latent class analysis was used to derive distinct classes among cancer survivors based on sociodemographic characteristics, medical attributes, and medical experiences. Logistic regression was used to examine whether class membership was associated with different eHealth practices. Results: Three distinct classes of cancer survivors with BMI in overweight or obese categories emerged: younger with no comorbidities, younger with comorbidities, and older with comorbidities. Compared to the other classes, the younger with comorbidities class had the highest probability of identifying as female (73%) and Hispanic (46%) and feeling that clinicians did not address their concerns (75%). The older with comorbidities class was 6.5 times more likely than the younger with comorbidities class to share eHealth data with a clinician (odds ratio [OR] 6.53, 95% CI 1.08-39.43). In contrast, the younger with no comorbidities class had a higher likelihood of using a computer to look for health information (OR 1.93, 95% CI 1.10-3.38), using an electronic device to track progress toward a health-related goal (OR 2.02, 95% CI 1.08-3.79), and using the internet to watch health-related YouTube videos (OR 2.70, 95% CI 1.52-4.81) than the older with comorbidities class. Conclusions: Class membership was associated with different patterns of eHealth engagement, indicating the importance of tailored digital strategies for delivering effective care. Future eHealth weight loss interventions should investigate strategies to engage younger cancer survivors with comorbidities and address racial and ethnic disparities in eHealth use.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Article number | e24137 |
| Journal | JMIR Cancer |
| Volume | 6 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jul 2020 |
Funding
AWL and SHB acknowledge salary support from National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute training grant T32 CA193193 (principal investigator: BS). NA is supported in part by National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases K25DK113242 and National Science Foundation CNS1915847. BS is supported in part by National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases R01s DK108678 and DK125414 and National Cancer Institute P30CA060553. Research reported in this publication was supported, in part, by the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (grant number UL1TR001422). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. The authors are grateful for the NCI HINTS investigators for their dedication in data collection and support. The authors would also like to thank the NCI HINTS participants for their contribution to research, as well as the reviewers and copyeditor (Coren Walters-Stewart) for their comments that have improved this manuscript.
Keywords
- Behavior
- Cancer survivorship
- EHealth
- Obesity
- Patient communication
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Oncology
- Cancer Research
