Assessment of Technology Use and Technology Preferences for HIV Prevention Among Hispanic Women

Abstract

Introduction: HIV transmission presents an ongoing risk to Hispanic women, and prevention efforts remain a priority. The use of technology to prevent HIV transmission among Hispanic women and those of lower socioeconomic status underscore the need for effective implementation of technology. The purpose of this study is to describe technology preferences and predictors of the use of the internet for HIV prevention among low-income Hispanic women. Method: A secondary analysis was conducted using baseline data from an intervention to prevent HIV among 320 Hispanic women. The parent study was SEPA, Salud (health), Educación (education), Promoción (promotion), y [and] Autocuidado (self-care). Results: Most participants reported using personal technology, such as smartphones (90.6%), the internet (78.1%), and personal email (67.5%), every day. Most (71.3%) participants were open to learning about HIV education via the internet. In the logistic regression analysis, education and time since the last visit to the health care provider were significant predictors of the use of the internet to learn about HIV prevention, after controlling for age, living with the partner, and years living in the United States. Conclusion: Hispanic women demonstrated high levels of comfort with different forms of technology. These results indicated the potential to expand future HIV intervention efforts by implementing electronic dissemination of bilingual and culturally appropriate information for Hispanic women of diverse ages.

Testing the Multi-Theory Model (MTM) to Predict the Use of New Technology for Social Connectedness in the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Another demographic characteristic that we found to be significantly different between users and non-users of technology was ethnicity, with fewer Hispanics (21.1%) using new technology (p = 0.02). This finding is somewhat contrary to the findings of a study on HIV prevention among Hispanic women that found high levels of comfort with technology use [43], and also a study was performed in New York that a large majority of Hispanics had computers at home and used the internet regularly [44]. Further, as expected, 68.4% of unemployed participants were not using new technology (p <0.0001).…”

Preferences for Technology-Mediated Behavioral Lifestyle Interventions With Different Levels of Coach and Peer Support Among Latino Men: Comparative Study Within One Arm of a Randomized Controlled Trial

“…The fact that 59% (118/200) of Latino men in this study preferred a technology-mediated option (ie, videoconference or web-based videos) suggests that these can be acceptable delivery formats for chronic disease prevention programs for this important high-risk population. This is consistent with previous literature indicating that Latinos are comfortable with technology and open to technology-mediated interventions [ 34 - 36 ]. However, given that the web-based videos were less effective for weight loss than either of the group-based options, future research should focus on increasing the effectiveness of web-based video options.…”

Heterogeneity in Trust of Cancer Information among Hispanic Adults in the United States: An Analysis of the Health Information National Trends Survey

“…The health information-seeking behaviors and motivations of Hispanics, particularly trust in various sources of cancer information, remain unclear. The most recent data on health information seeking has been limited to single sources of information (e.g., online only), and isolated to specific Hispanic populations, linguistically, ethnically, and geographically (21)(22)(23)(24). Studies not limited to Hispanic populations have demonstrated that eHealth literacy is associated with perceived trust in online health communication channels and sources, which may have significant implications for the Hispanic population given the digital use and access-related gaps mentioned previously (25).…”