Willingness of Women With Pelvic Floor Disorders to Use Mobile Technology to Communicate With Their Health Care Providers

Abstract

Objectives: To assess willingness of women with pelvic floor disorders to adopt non-traditional mobile communication methods with health care providers. Methods: Cross-sectional study of women with pelvic floor disorders. Women completed a survey regarding what technology they owned, how they utilized it and their willingness to use technology to communicate with providers. Results: Overall mobile technology ownership was high; however, older women were significantly less likely to own a smart phone (75%) compared to younger (100%) and middleaged women (98%) (p < .01). On univariable analysis, factors significantly associated with willingness to use mobile technology were age (p < .01) and education status (p < .01). A relationship between travel distance to the clinic and willingness to adopt various mobile technologies was not noted. On multivariable analysis, after controlling for education and travel distance to clinic, older women remained significantly less likely to express willingness to use various technologies: video-conference technology (OR 0.97, 95% CI 0.95, 0.99), text messaging (OR 0.94, 95% CI 0.91, 0.97), internet-based patient portal (OR 0.96, 95% CI 0.94, 0.98) and email (OR 0.94, 95% CI 0.91, 0.98). However, almost 50% of older women and greater than 65% of middle-aged women expressed willingness to adopt technologies for health care communication. Conclusions: Age-related differences exist in the ownership, utilization, and willingness to communicate with medical providers through mobile technology. However, the majority of women across all age-groups, irrespective of travel distance, are willing to adopt alternative mobile technologies to communicate with their health care providers.

Performance, acceptability, and validation of a phone application bowel diary

“…A 2015 survey by the Pew Research Center reported that 60% American adults have a smartphone with only those age 65 and older (30%) and those who did not complete a high school education (41%) falling below majority ownership 17 . In a recent survey of 200 women with pelvic floor disorders, 92% women overall and 75% women age 65 years and older owned a smartphone 18 . In this study, though younger women were more likely than older women to use technology to track health‐related information, the utilization of smartphone “apps” for health‐related reasons was high across all age groups.…”

“…17 In a recent survey of 200 women with pelvic floor disorders, 92% women overall and 75% women age 65 years and older owned a smartphone. 18 In this study, though younger women were more likely than older women to use technology to track health-related information, the utilization of smartphone "apps" for health-related reasons was high across all age groups. In fact, it has been noted that older adults have positive attitudes about using technology for health care with the perception of a benefit and ease of use as influential factors for older adults to use mHealth (mobile health) apps.…”

Telehealth in Urology: A Systematic Review of the Literature. How Much Can Telemedicine Be Useful During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic?

“…Eleven studies reported data on the application of telehealth in prostate cancer (PCa) [17,20,26,30,34,35,37,39,42,45,48], three studies in the diagnosis of patients with hematuria [31,40,43], six studies in the management of urinary stone disease [9][10][11]44,46,47], 14 studies in the management of urinary incontinence (UI) [12,22,23,25,27,28,32,33,36,38,[49][50][51] five studies in urinary tract infections (UTIs) [15,16,19,21,53], and six studies in other urological conditions [11,14,18,24,41]; 12 reports were randomized controlled trials (RCTs) [12,17,18,22,[25]…”

A guide to physiotherapy in urogynecology for patient care during the COVID-19 pandemic

“… To observe all norms and rules contained in the Codes of Ethics and Deontology of Physiotherapy and take into consideration that this may be influenced by each country’s specifics as well as specific regulations and/or standards of service involved and possible new regulations related to the pandemic, even when using digital physiotherapy [ 12 ]. To consider cultural aspects, technological and personal limitations on the use of technology, patient availability and access to technology, and familiarity of physiotherapists and patients with technological tools [ 13 ]. To choose the most appropriate digital method, considering the specific case to be treated as well as patient access and preferences.…”

“…To consider cultural aspects, technological and personal limitations on the use of technology, patient availability and access to technology, and familiarity of physiotherapists and patients with technological tools [ 13 ].…”