[email protected] [email protected]

Petros Kostagiolas
Assistant Professor,
Department of Archive,
Library Science and
Museology,
Ionian University
Konstantina Martzoukou
Lecturer,
Department of Information
Management,
Robert Gordon University,
[email protected]
[email protected]
Evaggelia Artopoulou
Dimitris Niakas
MSc Student
Professor
Hellenic Open University
Hellenic Open University
[email protected]
[email protected]
Keats, S. and Wiggins, S. 2014. Future diets: Implications for agriculture and food prices.
Overseas Development Institute
Keats, S. and Wiggins, S. 2014.Future diets: Implications for agriculture and food prices.
Overseas Development Institute
Global Burden of Disease Study 2013
 systematically identified surveys, reports, and
published studies (n=1769) that included data for
height and weight, both through physical
measurements and self-reports
Results:
 Worldwide, a body-mass index (BMI) of 25 kg/m2 or
greater increased between 1980 and 2013 for both
men and women
 Developing countries:
 62% of the world’s obese people live in developing countries
 women have higher rates of obesity than men
 Developed countries:
 The prevalence of overweight and obesity in childhood has
increased remarkably
 men have higher rates of obesity than women
UK Population
Greek Population
 For the first time in history, there are
11 million people aged 65 or over in
the UK
 There are over 22.7 million people
aged 50 years and over, over a third
of the total UK population
 There are now nearly 14.7 million
people in the UK aged 60 and above.
 3 million people are aged 80 or over
 There are now more people in the
UK aged 60 and above than there are
under 186
 There are more pensioners than
there are children under 16
(Age UK, 2015)
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UK life expectancy expected to rise to
late 80s by 2030!
Population approx. 11 million
Retirement age: from 65 to 67
4.1 million pensioners and unemployed
2.7 million pensioners
Unemployment 27.3% and over 60% for
those under 24
 Highly skilled
 Low emigration
 2011: fertility rate of 1.4 (2.1. needed to
replenish the previous generation
 (last Census 2011 in Greece)
Health information websites are used by nearly
half the internet population
20.9 million internet users visited health
information websites in July 2014,
spending an average of 11.8 minutes
each, and representing 43% of the active
internet population.
NHS websites are the most popular health
information sites, with a unique audience of
10.1 million (around two in ten of the UK
internet population accessed NHS sites in July
2014 )
engage with the site through a range of channels and
platforms, with social media and access via mobiles and
tablets increasingly popular
more likely to be women female than male (70% vs. 30%)
and from AB households, and in the 35-54 age groups
A? B? C?
D? E?
Cyberchondria
 overly distressed or anxious
about health performing
excessive or repeated healthrelated searches on the
Internet, only to become
more distressed or
frightened (Starcevic &
Berle, 2013)
UK (ONS
2014)
Cabinet
Office
(2014)
Digital Divide
older people - over 53%
of people who lack basic
digital skills are aged
over 65, and 69% are
over 55
those in social housing - 37%
of those who are digitally
excluded are social housing
tenants
those with disabilities 33% of people with
registered disabilities have
never used the internet.
54% of the total number
of people who have never
used the internet
Cabinet Office 2014
young people - 27% of
young people who are
offline are in full-time
employment
those on lower wages, or
unemployed - 44% of
people without basic digital
skills are on lower wages or
are unemployed
Digital Literacy
Health Literacy
“being able to make
use of technologies to
participate in and
contribute to modern
social, cultural, political
and economic life”:
"the degree to which
individuals have the
capacity to obtain,
process and understand
basic health
information and
services needed to
make appropriate
health decisions“
 communication,
collaboration,
social engagement
and understanding
of the context in
which it is applied
(JISC infoNet 2014)
(Institute of Medicine
2004)
I think that we need to
explore the interesting
connections between
health information
seeking and maintaining
health related quality of
life!
adoption of healthy lifestyle habits
influenced by a number of socioeconomic
parameters, different educational levels
and occupational characteristics
new set of information literacy skills and
become more proactive in maintaining their
health related quality of life
previous research: information needs and
the preferences of patients and/or
healthcare professionals towards specific
health issues (e.g. diabetes malicious,
cancer, etc)
improved online public access and better
communication/ health related online
information space rapidly expanding
Framework: Wilson IB model (1999) & EQ-5D 3L
Self-perceived quality of life scale (EuroQol
1990)
a standardised measure of health
status developed by the EuroQol
Group provides a simple, generic
measure of health for clinical and
economic appraisal
EQ-5D 3L health related quality of life scale
Level 1: indicating no problem
Level 2: indicating some problems
Level 3: indicating extreme problems
• A unique health state is defined by combing
1 level from each of the five dimensions
• A total od 243 possible health states is
defined in this way with a five digit score.
e.g. 11223 indicates
• no problem with mobility and self-care
• some problems with performing usual
activities
• moderate pain or discomfort
• extreme anxiety or depression
a three–level scale (no problem,
some or moderate problems, and
extreme problems with a score
from 1 to 3)
Methodology
 Questionnaire:
 Adaptation of Wilson’s (1999)
model for healthcare related ISB
of citizens
 Importance of information needs
 Utilization of online information
resources
 Importance of obstacles citizens face
when seeking information
 EQ-5D 3L
 Survey : February to March 2014 medium-size city, situated in the
Peloponnese region of Greece
 680 citizens / 585 agreed (86%)
Methodology details
 non-probability sampling
 Statistics:
 descriptive and inferential nonparametric statistical analysis through SPSS
 Correlation statistics assess the association of various EQ-5D scales to citizens’
information seeking behaviour
 Internal consistency: the 27-item questionnaire overall scale used had excellent
internal consistency reliability with Cronbach alpha coefficients 0.91
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The reliability coefficients of the questionnaire sub-scales were:
Importance information needs, 0.89
Utilization of online information resources, 0.90
Importance of obstacles when seeking information, 0.87
EQ-5D 3L , 0.70
Survey Demographics
Demographics
Women search more
for mental care, diet
and nutrition,
patient
groups/networks
Younger people
search more when
the doctor is unclear
Health Online Information Needs
Women turn to
online sources to
inform others more
than men
Married people look
for diagnosis more
than the rest of the
categories (e.g.
divorced)
Principal
Component
of information
Variable
Reduction,
PCAAnalysis
for Information
Needs: needs
Scale Validity
Examined internal consistency of the Cronbach Coefficient and the
Likert scales: variable reduction (above 0.4). Loading in the three
components with high consistency
Three doctor-related
variables; unusually
one related online
networks/groups:
collective expertise.
May replace the
doctor?
Use of Online Information Resources
Significant differences in favour of the
younger subgroups. Younger people
utilise online health sources more
frequently.
Principal Component Analysis: online
information resources
We can say with
confidence that the
category ‘online
information’
resources’ include all
these different
sources. A very
strong result in the
internal consistency
of the subscales
Obstacles/barriers to IS
Indicates a need for
the development of
health literacy.
Different health
literacy programmes
in relation to
different age groups
Married people
experienced lack of
time as a significant
barrier
profession:
pensioners and the
unemployed
experienced higher
barriers
PCA: Obstacles/barriers to IS
Variable Reduction, PCA for Obstacles when seeking
Information: Scale Validity
EQ-5D 3L health related quality of life scale
over 50 years,
pensioners and stay
at home individuals
experience higher
levels - but not
anxiety!
Women feel more
anxiety/depression
than me
Descriptive statistics
Unusually, there is
very high level of
level 2 responses
which may be due to
special
socioeconomic
conditions
Imbalanced but it
reflects what is
expected in the
population. Level 3
represents extreme
health conditions
Associations of Quality of life dimensions with
Information Needs
 Mobility is associated with information for
 “patient groups / networks” (p=0.005; -0.116)
 Self-care is associated with information for
 “alternative therapy” (p=0.06, 0.114); “drugs” (p=0.018; 0.098);
 Usual activities is associated with
 “alternative therapy” (p=0.02, 0.096);
 Anxiety /depression is associated with information for
 - “drugs” ( p=0.022, -0.095); “reducing anxiety after consultation”
(p=0.012; -0.104); “support groups” (p= 0.011;-0.105)
The less mobility
the more use of
patient
groups/networks
Higher self-care
problems are
associated with
needs for these
information needs
The more anxiety
the more the
need to turn to
support groups.
Consultations
with doctors/
information on
drugs may not
help.
The more the
mobility problems
the less the use of
online information
resources
Associations of Quality of life dimensions with
Information Resources Utilization
The more the
pain/discomfort
the less the use of
official/medical
websites
Associations of Quality of life dimensions with obstacles
when seeking information
A number of
positive
correlations
 Mobility is not associated with any of the obstacles when seeking
information
 Self-care is associated with:
 “PC skills” (p=0.09, 0.107); “cost” (p=0.06; 0.114); “”
 Usual activities is associated with:
 “cost” (p=0.016, 0.100); “complicated information” (p=0.048; 0.082)
 Pain/discomfort is associated with:
 “complicated information” (p=0.024; 0.094)
 Anxiety /depression is associated with:
 - “PC skills” ( p=0.035, -0.087); “lack of trust” (p=0.018; 0.098)
Value of the study
• Proposed a research framework using an established
information seeking model developed by Wilson
(information needs, sources and barriers) and a
standard measurement for assessing health related
quality of life (Q-5D 3L health related quality of life
scale). This could be replicated in future research in
different contexts
• Employed Principal Component Analysis to propose a
useful reduction to a few key components for
information needs, sources and barriers which could
be employed in future research with confidence
• Examined correlations between quality of life and
information seeking dimensions
• More details of this soon in our full paper!
References
 Age UK, 2015. Later life in the UK.
 EuroQol Group. 1990. EuroQol-a new facility for the measurement of health-related quality of life. Health Policy, 16, pp.199208
 Cheuk, K. Oeman, M. Oppe, M. and Rabin, R. 2009. EQ-SD User Guide basic Information on how to use EQ-SD. EuroqQol
http://www.euroqol.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Documenten/PDF/User_Guide_v2_March_2009.pdf
 Starcevic V., Berle, D.2013 Cyberchondria: towards a better understanding of excessive health-related Internet use Expert
Rev Neurother. 2013 Feb;13(2),pp. 205-13. doi: 10.1586/ern.12.162.
 Keats, S. and Wiggins, S. 2014.Future diets: Implications for agriculture and food prices. Overseas Development Institute
 Ng, M et al. 2014. Global, regional, and national prevalence of overweight and obesity in children and adults during 1980–
2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013. Lancet , 38 (9945), pp. 766-781.
 Ofcom, 2014. Internet Citizens 2014 Use of selected citizen-related online content and services
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/research/telecoms-research/Internet_Citizens_Report_14.pdf
 ALA Connect, 2011. Digital Literacy Definition. Retrieved from http://connect.ala.org/node/181197
 Commission of the European Communities. (2007). Key Competences for Lifelong Learning – A European Framework.
 Institute of Medicine, 2004. Health literacy: a prescription to end confusion. Washington DC: National Academies Press
 UNESCO INSTITUTE FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES IN EDUCATION, 2003. Towards policies for integrating information
and communication technologies into education [online]. Available from http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.phpURL_ID=7782&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
 Office of National Statistics, 2014. Internet Access – Households and Individuals 2014.
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/rdit2/internet-access---households-and-individuals/2014/stb-ia-2014.html
Images
From my personal library
Drawings
Electro-girl Drawing
By Evelina Anagnostopoulou Martzoukou (age 6)