HONOLULU — The “digital divide” separating society's haves and have-nots may not be as deep as many fear.
In a study of 120 parents of adolescent patients and the patients themselves, more than 60% of parents and adolescents of low socioeconomic status (SES) from a Boston pediatric practice indicated a willingness to contact physicians via e-mail if given the option, according to Dr. Tarissa Mitchell of Boston Medical Center.
Of the respondents, 66% stated they had access to e-mail and/or computers at home. But only 19% of the parents had their health care provider's e-mail address, and only 3% had ever used e-mail to contact their provider.
Dr. Mitchell and Dr. Shikha G. Anand of the Whittier Street Health Center, Roxbury, Mass., conducted a survey of 120 parents of adolescent patients and the adolescent patients at an urban community health center in Boston over a 4-month period. At the clinic, five pediatric providers serve 3,876 low SES children, of whom 84% are publicly insured and 82% self-identify as black or Hispanic.
Compared with respondents without e-mail at home, those with home e-mail were significantly more willing to contact their physicians: 77% vs. 33%. Respondents who used e-mail more frequently also were significantly more willing to contact their provider this way. For example, among respondents whose e-mail was always on, 89% were willing to e-mail their physicians. This declined to 60% among respondents who used e-mail weekly and to 43% of those who used e-mail monthly or less frequently, the authors wrote in a poster presented at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies.
Only 13% of the respondents said they would never use e-mail to communicate with their provider. The most common reason was a desire to telephone the office, but they also cited lack of e-mail access, difficulty with the English language, and concerns over bothering the doctor. Dr. Mitchell and Dr. Anand stated that they had no conflicts of interest.