Computer and Internet Use of Urban African Americans With Type 2 Diabetes in Relation to Glycemic Control, Emergency Department Use, Diabetes-Related Knowledge, and Health Literacy.

2010·0.03 MB·English

by  Samal, Lipika

O N L I N E L E T T E R S
OBSERVATIONS representative subset of 112 participants TIFFANYL.GARY-WEBB,PHD1,2
at baseline. This study was approved by CHANDRAL.JACKSON,MSC2
the Johns Hopkins University School of FREDERICKL.BRANCATI,MD,MHS1,2
MedicineInstitutionalReviewBoard.
Computer and Of the 542 Project Sugar 2 partici- From the 1Division of General Internal Medicine,
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine,
Internet Use of pants eligible for the computer/Internet
Baltimore,Maryland;andthe2DepartmentofEp-
Urban African survey,457(84%)interviewswerecom- idemiology,JohnsHopkinsBloombergSchoolof
pleted. Sociodemographic and clinical PublicHealth,Baltimore,Maryland.
Americans With Type characteristics of the survey participants Corresponding author: Lipika Samal, lsamal1@
jhmi.edu.
2 Diabetes in didnotdifferfromnonrespondersandare
DOI:10.2337/dc09-1416
summarized in an article published pre-
Relation to Glycemic © 2010 by the American Diabetes Association.
viously (3). Respondents primarily were Readersmayusethisarticleaslongastheworkis
Control, Emergency middle-aged (mean age 57 years), were properlycited,theuseiseducationalandnotfor
Department Use, female(73%),andhada60%highschool profit, and the work is not altered. See http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ for
graduationrate.Ofparticipants,53%had
Diabetes-Related details.
elevated A1C and 65% were above the
Knowledge, and blood pressure goal. During the 24-
Health Literacy month period, 22% had more than one Acknowledgments—Project Sugar 2 was
ED visit. The DKN score of those tested fundedbygrantsfromtheNationalInstitutes
ofHealth(NIH)(R01-DK48117andR00052).
wasintherange0–12withameanof5.
L.S. was supported by a grant from the Na-
Web-based diabetes interventions Few (18%) had inadequate levels of tional Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
healthliteracy.
favorably influence process and (NHLBI)(T32HP10025).H.-C.Y.andF.L.B.
Forallrespondents,82%eitherknew
clinicaloutcomes,butfewstud- were supported by the National Institute of
ieshavefocusedonurbanAfricanAmer- howtouseacomputerorwerewillingto Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
icans, in part because of the perception learn.Resultsweresimilarforthosewith (NIDDK) Diabetes Research and Training
suboptimal control: 85% for those with Center(P60DK079637).T.L.G.-W.wassup-
that they lack adequate access, experi-
elevatedA1Cand80%forthosewithel- portedbyagrantfromNHLBI(K01HL084700).
ence,orinterest(1).Black-whitedispari-
evated blood pressure. Likewise, the fig- F.L.B. was also supported by a grant from
ties in diabetes-related knowledge and
urewas80%forthosewithmorethanone NIDDK(K24DK62222).
health behaviors are natural targets for
Nopotentialconflictsofinterestrelevantto
ED visit, 88% for those with a below-
suchinterventions.Wehypothesizedthat thisarticlewerereported.
average DKN score, and 83% for those
urban African Americans with subopti-
withaninadequateshorttestoffunctional
maldiabetescontrol,lowdiabetes-related ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
healthliteracy.Themainlimitationofthis
knowledge, and/or low health literacy References
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that Web-based diabetes interventions ventionsinurbanAfrican-Americanswith
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care.diabetesjournals.org DIABETESCARE,VOLUME33,NUMBER1,JANUARY2010 e9