Author/Source:Susannah Fox and Kristen Purcell, Pew Internet & American Life Project, March 24, 2010.
Adults living with chronic disease are disproportionately offline in an online world.
Recent survey data from the Pew Internet & American Life Project and the California HealthCare Foundation show that adults living with chronic disease are significantly less likely than healthy adults to have access to the internet and people managing multiple diseases are even less likely to have internet access. These findings are in line with overall trends in public health and technology adoption. Statistically speaking, chronic disease is associated with being older, African American, less educated and living in a lower-income household. By contrast, internet use is statistically associated with being younger, white, college-educated and living in a higher-income household. Thus, it is not surprising that the chronically ill report lower rates of internet access than other adults. However, when all of these demographic factors are controlled for, living with a chronic disease in and of itself has an independent, negative effect on someone's likelihood to have internet access.
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