194525 Media and Internet Ownership and Use among Mental Health Outpatients with Serious Mental Illness and Co-Occuring Substance Use Disorders

Monday, November 9, 2009

Seth Himelhoch, MD, MPH , Department of Pyschiatry, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD
Sara Clayton, MS , Psychology Internship Consortium, VA Maryland Health Care System/University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD
Deborah Medoff, PhD , Department of Pyschiatry, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD
Wendy Potts, MS , Psychiatry, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD
Lisa Dixon, MD, MPH , Department of Pyschiatry, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD
Theodora Balis, MD , University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD
Ann Hackman, MD , University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD
Dina L.G. Borzekowski, EdD , Health, Behavior and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD
Objective: To better understand how people with serious mental illness and substance use disorders use the Internet to receive health information.

Methods: One hundred people with severe mental illness (SMI) were interviewed in community mental health clinic settings during 2007. Access and use of media (e.g. Internet) as well as barriers to Internet use were assessed.

Results: Two-thirds of the sample was male, about 75% were African-American and almost 80% were age 40 years or older. Nearly three quarters reported having schizophrenia, and 48% reported having an alcohol or drug problem. Younger participants and those with more education were significantly more likely to use the Internet (p<0.05). Participants that reported having a substance use disorder were less likely to report using the Internet than those who did not have a substance use disorder (p<0.01). Internet users with a substance use disorders were significantly more likely to report going to sites topically related to substance abuse (p=0.01).They were also more likely to report using the Internet to get information related to alcohol use and sexually transmitted diseases. Barriers to Internet use among both substance using and non-substance using people with SMI, include expense and lack of knowledge.

Conclusion: Few participants with SMI and substance use disorder used the Internet; however, they appeared to use it for information related to substance use. Attention to educating patients about finding quality online health information may be warranted.

Learning Objectives:
Discuss to what extent people with serious mental illness (SMI) and substance use disorders (SUD) use the Internet to receive health information

Keywords: Mental Health, Information Technology

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am an assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine who designed, collected and analysed the data for this project.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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See more of: Mental Health