Computer and internet use among people with long-standing spinal cord injury: a cross-sectional survey in the Netherlands

Abstract

Study design: Cross-sectional survey Objectives: To describe computer and Internet use (other than for work or study) among people with long-standing spinal cord injury (SCI), examine associations between demographic and lesion characteristics and Internet use, and examine associations between Internet use and mental health, participation, and life satisfaction. Setting: Community, The Netherlands Methods: Participants were 265 individuals living with SCI for at least 10 years, who were 18-35 at the onset of SCI, aged 28-65 at the time of the study and wheelchair-user. Scales for General and Health-related Internet use were developed. Results: Nearly all (97.7%) participants had Internet access and 98.4% of those used it daily or weekly. Of those with tetraplegia, 47.4% had assistive devices for computer use. General Internet use, such as following news and online banking, was very frequent. Websites with information on general health or accessibility were typically visited a few times a year. Three-quarters never visited websites of other individuals with SCI or foreign websites with information on SCI. General Internet use was associated with male gender, younger age, and higher education. Participants with tetraplegia scored higher on Health-related Internet use compared to participants with paraplegia. Health-related Internet use was associated with worse participation, but not with the other psychosocial variables. Conclusion: Internet has become part of daily life of people with SCI in the Netherlands. However, only one association between Internet use and indicators of psychosocial functioning was found. Possible underuse of adaptive devices and of SCI-specific websites warrant further investigation.

Developing guiding principles for technology-based rehabilitation program by engaging people with motor incomplete tetraplegia

“…All participants had internet access, and this did not present as a barrier. This is consistent with other work showing people with spinal cord injury regularly access the internet [19,20] and embedding rehabilitation into this established context would not create additional hardships.…”

How individuals with spinal cord injury in the United States access and assess information about experimental therapies and clinical trials: results of a clinical survey

“…While our participants were relatively well-educated and financially secure, and, may, hence, have better availability of online resources than do less well educated and wealthy individuals with SCI [33,34], the literature documents that people with SCI are concerned about the validity and specificity of internet-derived information [14,17]. Consistent with these findings, while our participants were relatively reliant on the internet, over half of them worried that the materials they find there may not be accurate.…”

The Most Important Assistive Devices for Persons with Spinal Cord Injury in Switzerland: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…These findings are consistent with Florio et al [7], who found that manual wheelchairs were primarily used by persons with complete paraplegia, and walking aids such as crutches, walking frames, and leg braces were mainly used by those with an incomplete lesion. Additionally, we found that persons with complete tetraplegia considered the computer as the most important AD, reflecting the importance of advanced technology and the wide range of electronic devices that assist persons with tetraplegia, such as eye-tracking [25], an adapted keyboard, speech-recognition software [26], and screen readers [27]. In their survey involving 15 veterans with SCI, Collinger et al [4] found that the most important design characteristic for new technologies such as brain-computer interfaces was the capability for independent operation, closely followed by non-invasiveness.…”