People who suffer from chronic illness are more likely to be chronically offline: they use the Internet much less than in good health people, a new survey finds.
The survey, conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project and the California HealthCare Foundation, and published online March 24, found that just 62 percent of adults surveyed who undergo from a chronic disease go online, compared to 81 percent of those who don't have a chronic disease.



Adults who have more than one chronic disease are yet less likely to go online: 68 percent of people with one constant disease do, compared with just 52 percent of those who have two or more chronic diseases.

The findings reflect general information about who uses the Internet and who doesn't. Those who don't go online are more expected to be older, black, less educated and have a lower income, the survey found.

However, the researchers noted that chronic illness compact the likelihood that a person will go online even after they familiar their statistics to account for the influence of these factors.

People with chronic disease even pay out less time than healthier people looking up information about health topics: 51 percent of the chronically ill participants reported doing so, compared to two-thirds of the others who were surveyed.

The results showed that there was one way that people with chronic disease stood out regarding Internet use: When statistics were adjusted to account for the authority of factors such as race and age, the researchers found that those with a chronic disease were more likely to write on a blog or contribute to discussions online.

Labels: Health care tips