Subscribe to RSS
![](/products/assets/desktop/img/oa-logo.png)
DOI: 10.15265/IY-2016-045
All that Glitters Is not Gold: Consumer Health Informatics and Education in the Era of Social Media and Health Apps
Findings from the Yearbook 2016 Section on Consumer Health InformaticsPublication History
10 November 2016
Publication Date:
06 March 2018 (online)
![](https://www.thieme-connect.de/media/10.1055-s-00034612/201601/lookinside/thumbnails/10-15265-iy-2016-045-1.jpg)
Summary
Objective: To summarize the state of the art published during the year 2015 in the areas related to consumer health informatics and education with a special emphasis on unintended consequences of applying mobile and social media technologies in that domain.
Methods: We conducted a systematic review of articles published in PubMed with a predefined set of queries, which lead to the selection of over 700 potential relevant articles. Section editors screened those papers on the title, abstract, and finally complete paper basis, taking into account the papers’ relevance for the section topic. The 15 most representative papers were finally selected by consensus between the two section editors and submitted for full review and scoring to external reviewers and the yearbook editors. Based on the final scoring, section editors selected the best five papers.
Results: The five best papers can be grouped in two major areas: 1) Digital health literacy and 2) Quality and safety concerns. Regarding health literacy issues of patients with chronic conditions such as asthma, online interventions should rather focus on changing patient beliefs about the disease than on supporting them in the management of their pathology since personally controlled health management systems do not show expected benefits,. Nevertheless, encouraging and training chronic patients for an active online health information–seeking behaviour substantially decreases state anxiety level. Regarding safety and privacy issues, even recommended health-related apps available on mobile phones do not guarantee personal data protection. Furthermore, the analysis indicated that patients undergoing Internet interventions experienced at least one adverse event that might be related to treatment. At least, predictive factors have been identified in order to credit or not a health rumour.
Conclusions: Trusting digital and connected health can be achieved if patients, health care professionals, and industrials build a shared model of health data management integrating ethics rules. Only increasing efforts in education with regards of digital health would help reach this goal., This would not resolve all frauds and security issues but at least improve their detection.
-
References
- 1 Virginio LA, Ricarte ILM. Identification of Patient Safety Risks Associated with Electronic Health Records: A Software Quality Perspective.. Stud Health Technol Inform 2015; 216: 55-9.
- 2 Ramzy A. China Investigates Baidu After Student’s Death From Cancer.. The New York Times 2016 May.
- 3 Staccini P, Fernandez-Luque L. Health Social Media and Patient-Centered Care: Buzz or Evidence? Findings from the Section “Education and Consumer Health Informatics” of the 2015 Edition of the IMIA Yearbook.. Yearb Med Inform 2015; 160-3.
- 4 Bailey SC, O’Conor R, Bojarski EA, Mullen R, Patzer RE, Vicencio D, Jacobson KL, Parker RM, Wolf MS. Literacy disparities in patient access and health-related use of Internet and mobile technologies.. Heal Expect 2015; 18 (Suppl. 06) 3079-87.
- 5 Feng Y, Xie W. Digital divide 2.0: the role of social networking sites in seeking health information online from a longitudinal perspective.. J Health Commun 2015; 20 (Suppl. 01) 60-8.
- 6 Levy H, Janke AT, Langa KM. Health literacy and the digital divide among older Americans.. J Gen Intern Med 2015; 30 (Suppl. 03) 284-9.
- 7 Norman C. eHealth literacy 2.0: problems and opportunities with an evolving concept.. J Med Internet Res 2011 13(4).
- 8 Magnezi R, Grosberg D, Novikov I, Ziv A, Shani M, Freedman LS. Characteristics of patients seeking health information online via social health networks versus general Internet sites: a comparative study.. Inform Health Soc Care 2015; 40 (Suppl. 02) 125-38.
- 9 Jamal A, Khan SA, AlHumud A, Al-Duhyyim A, Alrashed M, Bin Shabr F, Alteraif A, Almuziri A, Househ M, Qureshi R. Association of Online Health Information-Seeking Behavior and Self-Care Activities Among Type 2 Diabetic Patients in Saudi Arabia.. J Med Internet Res 2015; 17 (Suppl. 08) e196.
- 10 Minto C, Bauce B, Calore C, Rigato I, Folino F, Soriani N, Hochdorn A, Iliceto S, Gregori D. Is Internet use associated with anxiety in patients with and at risk for cardiomyopathy?. Am Heart J 2015; 170 (Suppl. 01) 87-95 95.e1–4.
- 11 Mohd Roffeei SH, Abdullah N, Basar SKR. Seeking social support on Facebook for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs).. Int J Med Inform 2015; 84 (Suppl. 05) 375-85.
- 12 Paolino L, Genser L, Fritsch S, De’Angelis N, Azoulay D, Lazzati A. The web-surfing bariatic patient: the role of the internet in the decision-making process.. Obes Surg 2015; 25 (Suppl. 04) 738-43.
- 13 Lau AY. “Why Didn’t it Work?” Lessons From a Randomized Controlled Trial of a Web-based Personally Controlled Health Management System for Adults with Asthma.. J Med Internet Res 2015; 17: e283.
- 14 Barry AR, Pearson GJ. Professional use of social media by pharmacists.. Can J Hosp Pharm 2015; [cited 2016 May 26] 68 (Suppl. 01) 22-7.
- 15 Zhang Z, Zhang Z, Li H. Predictors of the authenticity of Internet health rumours.. Health Info Libr J England 2015; Sep 32 (Suppl. 03) 195-205.
- 16 Seymour B, Getman R, Saraf A, Zhang LH, Kalenderian E. When advocacy obscures accuracy online: Digital pandemics of public health misinformation through an antifluoride case study.. Am J Public Health 2015; 105 (Suppl. 03) 517-23.
- 17 Rozental A, Boettcher J, Andersson G, Schmidt B, Carlbring P. Negative Effects of Internet Interventions: A Qualitative Content Analysis of Patients’ Experiences with Treatments Delivered Online.. Cogn Behav Ther 2015; 44 (Suppl. 03) 223-36.
- 18 Huckvale K, Prieto JT, Tilney M, Benghozi P-J, Car J. Unaddressed privacy risks in accredited health and wellness apps: a cross-sectional systematic assessment.. BMC Med 2015; 13 (Suppl. 01) 214.