Internet access and use by COPD patients in the National Emphysema/COPD Association Survey

Martinez, Carlos H; St Jean, Beth L; Plauschinat, Craig A; Rogers, Barbara; Beresford, Julen; Martinez, Fernando J; Richardson, Caroline R; Han, MeiLan K

doi:10.1186/1471-2466-14-66

BMC Pulmonary Medicine

Table 2 Patients’ comorbidities and perceived needs by internet access and frequency of internet use

From: Internet access and use by COPD patients in the National Emphysema/COPD Association Survey

	Internet access			Frequency of internet use
	Yes N = 590	No N = 324	p-value	At least weekly N = 150	Less than weekly N = 440	p-value
Comorbidities (%)
Hypertension	44.58	53.37	0.009	28.48	50.11	< 0.0001
Heart disease	23.39	33.43	0.0009	17.88	25.28	0.06
Arthritis	35.93	53.08	< 0.0001	27.81	38.72	0.015
Osteoporosis	22.03	28.74	0.02	25.17	20.96	0.28
Diabetes	17.46	24.63	0.008	11.92	19.36	0.037
Anxiety	22.71	21.11	0.57	35.10	18.45	< 0.0001
Depression	22.71	20.82	0.50	32.45	19.36	0.0009
Obesity	21.19	15.84	0.045	31.79	17.54	0.0002
Sleep disorder	23.56	13.78	0.0003	22.52	23.92	0.72
Migraine	5.76	4.11	0.27	5.96	5.69	0.90
Mean comorbidities	2.7 (1.8)	3.0 (1.9)	0.01	2.8 (1.8)	2.7 (1.9)	0.80
Disease by systems
Any psych disease	32.49	31.38	0.72	45.70	27.95	< 0.0001
Any cardiovasc disease	61.59	72.43	0.0008	44.37	67.50	< 0.0001
Any articular disease	46.19	62.76	< 0.0001	41.72	47.73	0.20
Perceived needs (%)
Insufficient time with physician	10.00	7.28	0.21	20.53	6.29	< 0.0001
Dissatisfied with my physician	10.26	6.33	0.058	14.67	8.74	0.03
Diagnosis was delayed	39.42	19.35	< 0.0001	57.62	33.18	< 0.0001
Doctor not sympathetic	3.77	1.77	0.06	6.62	2.78	0.04
Doctor does not listen	8.92	10.14	0.56	17.22	5.94	< 0.0001
Treated poorly by healthcare system	10.28	14.02	0.11	23.33	5.19	< 0.0001
Doctor difficult to make appointment with	8.02	7.25	0.67	12.58	6.44	0.01
Doctor difficult to reach	12,84	12.10	0.74	20.53	10.16	0.001
Dissatisfied with meds	9.01	8.18	0.66	13.33	7.49	0.03
Poor/very poor health	22.75	17.40	0.06	33.77	18.95	0.0002
Severe/very severe symptoms	39.11	28.27	0.001	54.97	33.56	< 0.0001
Symptoms keep me from working	30.63	22.58	0.008	53.64	22.73	< 0.0001
Symptoms limit amount of work	48.56	45.75	0.40	56.95	45.68	0.016
Visits any doctor	8.0 (6.4)	6.7 (5.9)	0.002	9.1 (6.6)	7.6 (6.2)	0.015
Visits pulmonologist	3.0 (3.5)	2.4 (2.7)	0.010	3.9 (4.9)	2.7 (2.7)	0.002

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ISSN: 1471-2466

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