Abstract
Nationally 62% of individuals in Ireland have internet access. Previous published work has suggested that internet use is higher among those with low back pain. We aimed to determine the levels of internet access and use amongst an elective spinal outpatient population and determine what characteristics influence these. We distributed a self-designed questionnaire to patients attending elective spinal outpatient clinics. Data including demographics, history of surgery, number of visits, level of satisfaction with previous consultations, access to the internet, possession of health insurance, and details regarding use of the internet to research one’s spinal complaint were collected. 213 patients completed the questionnaire. 159 (75%) had access to the internet. Of this group 48 (23%) used the internet to research their spinal condition. Increasing age, higher education level, and possession of health insurance were all significantly associated with access to the internet (p < 0.05). A higher education level predicted greater internet use while possession of insurance weakly predicted non-use (p < 0.05). In our practice, internet access is consistent with national statistics and use is comparable to previous reports. Approximately, one quarter of outpatients will use the internet to research their spinal condition. Should we use this medium to disseminate information we need to be aware some groups may not have access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Central Statistics Office I (2008) Information Society Statistics First Results 2008—Household Statistics. http://www.cso.ie/releasespublications/documents/industry/current/issh.pdf. Accessed 15 Nov 2009
http://www.google.com. Accessed 21 July 2009
Beall MS III, Beall MS Jr, Greenfield ML, Biermann JS (2002) Patient Internet use in a community outpatient orthopaedic practice. Iowa Orthop J 22:103–107
Beall MS III, Golladay GJ, Greenfield ML, Hensinger RN, Biermann JS (2002) Use of the Internet by pediatric orthopaedic outpatients. J Pediatr Orthop 22:261–264
Brown RR (2003) The Internet—friend or foe? A questionnaire study of orthopaedic out-patients. Ann R Coll Surg Engl 85:143 (author reply 143–144)
Jariwala AC, Kandasamy MS, Abboud RJ, Wigderowitz CA (2004) Patients and the Internet: a demographic study of a cohort of orthopaedic out-patients. Surgeon 2:103–106
Krempec J, Hall J, Biermann JS (2003) Internet use by patients in orthopaedic surgery. Iowa Orthop J 23:80–82
Wright JE, Brown RR, Chadwick C, Karadaglis D (2001) The use of the Internet by orthopaedic outpatients. J Bone Joint Surg Br 83:1096–1097
Central Statistics Office (2008) Health Status and Health Service Utilisation. http://www.cso.ie/releasespublications/pr_healthsoc.htm. Accessed 15 Dec 2009
Central Statistics Office I (2006) Persons, males and females aged 15 years and over classified by highest level of education completed, 2006. http://www.cso.ie/statistics/pmfageover15edcompleted.htm. Accessed 15 Dec 2009
Parekh S, Lim C, Booth R, Nazarian D (2002) Influence of the Internet in an orthopaedic practice: survey of 500 patients. Univ Pa Orthop J 15:61–65
Gupte CM, Hassan AN, McDermott ID, Thomas RD (2002) The internet–friend or foe? A questionnaire study of orthopaedic out-patients. Ann R Coll Surg Engl 84:187–192
Bader SA, Braude RM (1998) “Patient informatics”: creating new partnerships in medical decision making. Acad Med 73:408–411
Beredjiklian PK, Bozentka DJ, Steinberg, Bernstein J (2000) Evaluating the source and content of orthopaedic information on the Internet. The case of carpal tunnel syndrome. J Bone Joint Surg Am 82-A:1540–1543
Sacchetti P, Zvara P, Plante MK (1999) The Internet and patient education–resources and their reliability: focus on a select urologic topic. Urology 53:1117–1120
Badarudeen S, Sabharwal S (2008) Readability of patient education materials from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America web sites. J Bone Joint Surg Am 90:199–204
White R, Horvitz E (2008) Cyberchondria: studies of the escalation of medical concerns in web search. http://scientiareview.org/pdfs/4.pdf. Accessed 29 July 2009
Acknowledgments
We wish to acknowledge support from the Orthopaedic Research and Innovation Foundation (http://www.orif.ie).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Baker, J.F., Devitt, B.M., Kiely, P.D. et al. Prevalence of Internet use amongst an elective spinal surgery outpatient population. Eur Spine J 19, 1776–1779 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00586-010-1377-y
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00586-010-1377-y