PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

New research shows sexual minority adults more willing to use digital health tools for public health

2024-03-11
(Press-News.org) [Toronto, March 11, 2024] — Little is known about the willingness of sexual minority adults—people who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or other nonheterosexual orientation identities—to use digital health tools. A new study, published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research by Dr Wilson Vincent of Temple University, has shed light on this question in the context of public health screening and tracking. The research challenges assumptions about the uptake of such technologies, particularly amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr Vincent notes that past studies have seldom looked into how willing sexual minority groups are to use digital health tools, particularly in relation to pandemics or non-HIV prevention measures. In the COVID-19 era, use of cutting-edge mHealth tools such as smartphone apps for screening, monitoring, and treating the virus has skyrocketed, marking a thrilling advancement in health care technology. Yet, how enthusiastic are people about embracing these new technologies?

To answer this question, Dr Vincent used data from the COVID Impact Survey, which was conducted during the height of the COVID-19 response in the United States and surveyed over 2000 people. A deep dive into this publicly available data set revealed that sexual minority adults showed a greater willingness to use digital health tools for screening and tracking compared to heterosexual adults. Interestingly, there were no notable differences in this group in terms of age, gender, or race/ethnicity. On the flip side, White heterosexual adults showed a disproportionately low willingness to use such tools.

The findings show how important it is to make digital health tools work for everyone. Diverse populations should be considered in the development and implementation of digital health strategies, particularly during public health crises. By understanding and meeting the needs of sexual minority adults, policymakers and health care workers can make health strategies better and fairer for all.

The study also highlights the need for ongoing research into the digital divide among different demographic groups. Gaining insights into the factors that shape one's readiness to interact with digital health tools can guide the creation of tailored interventions aimed at closing current disparities in health care accessibility and adoption. Future studies that delve into the various dynamics involved can help create health care solutions that work for everyone, no matter their sexual orientation or other demographic factors.

 

Please cite as:

Vincent W

Willingness to Use Digital Health Screening and Tracking Tools for Public Health in Sexual Minority Populations in a National Probability Sample: Quantitative Intersectional Analysis

J Med Internet Res 2024;26:e47448

doi: 10.2196/47448

URL: https://www.jmir.org/2024/1/e47448

 

###

About JMIR Publications

JMIR Publications is a renowned publisher with a long-standing commitment to advancing digital health research and progressing open science. Our portfolio includes a wide array of prestigious open access, peer-reviewed journals dedicated to the dissemination of high-quality research in the field of digital health. JMIR Publications is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2024 as the leading open access, digital health publisher.

To learn more about JMIR Publications, please visit jmirpublications.com or connect with us via Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.

Head office: 130 Queens Quay East, Unit 1100, Toronto, ON, M5A 0P6 Canada

Media contact: communications@jmir.org

The content of this communication is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, published by JMIR Publications, is properly cited.

 

END



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

UNIST earns AACSB accreditation for excellence in business education programs once again!

UNIST earns AACSB accreditation for excellence in business education programs once again!
2024-03-11
UNIST has once again been internationally recognized for maintaining the highest standard of quality in its business education programs. On February 26, UNIST proudly announced that the School of Business Administration, the Graduate School of Technology and Innovation Management, and the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Management have successfully renewed their accreditation in business education from the prestigious Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). This renewal of accreditation by AACSB underscores the exceptional quality of business programs at UNIST, with the university initially earning AACSB accreditation in 2018. UNIST holds the distinction ...

Breakthrough in nanostructure technology for real-time color display

Breakthrough in nanostructure technology for real-time color display
2024-03-11
A groundbreaking technology that enables the real-time display of colors and shapes through changes in nanostructures has been developed. This innovative technology, pioneered by Professor Kang Hee Ku and her team in the School of Energy and Chemical Engineering at UNIST, has the potential to revolutionize various fields, such as smart polymer particles. Utilizing block copolymers, the research team has achieved the self-assembly of photonic crystal structures on a large scale, mimicking natural phenomena observed ...

Americans' trust in scientific expertise survived polarization, Trump attacks on science

2024-03-11
      Americans' basic confidence in science and scientific expertise was unshaken by the Trump administration's attacks on scientific expertise, and has remained high during the last six decades, according to an analysis led by the University of Michigan.   Trump's attacks on scientific experts—exemplified by criticism of Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases—increased the level of partisan polarization in the United States and made the question of scientific expertise more salient ...

Unveiling Inaoside A: An antioxidant derived from mushrooms

Unveiling Inaoside A: An antioxidant derived from mushrooms
2024-03-11
Natural products have unique chemical structures and biological activities and can play a pivotal role in advancing pharmaceutical science. In a pioneering study, researchers from Shinshu University discovered Inaoside A, an antioxidant derived from Laetiporus cremeiporus mushrooms. This breakthrough sheds light on the potential of mushrooms as a source of therapeutic bioactive compounds. The search for novel bioactive compounds from natural sources has gained considerable momentum in recent years due to the need for new therapeutic ...

Improving care of hospitalized patients with HIV in Tanzania

Improving care of hospitalized patients with HIV in Tanzania
2024-03-11
Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine have shown that three months of social worker follow-up support to people hospitalized with HIV in Tanzania had health benefits at low cost. The protocol shortened the time it took participants to attend an HIV clinic and to start on antiretroviral therapy after discharge. However, the study published in JAMA on Mar. 6 found that the care benefits didn’t translate to a decrease in mortality after one year. They compared a group that received extended case management intervention with a control group receiving ...

Researchers uncover protein responsible for cold sensation

2024-03-11
University of Michigan researchers have identified the protein that enables mammals to sense cold, filling a long-standing knowledge gap in the field of sensory biology.   The findings, published in Nature Neuroscience, could help unravel how we sense and suffer from cold temperature in the winter, and why some patients experience cold differently under particular disease conditions.   "The field started uncovering these temperature sensors over 20 years ago, with the discovery of a heat-sensing protein called TRPV1," said neuroscientist Shawn ...

Experts create blueprint to aid elderly people at storm flood risk

2024-03-11
Emergency planners in Shanghai and New York City face increasing pressure to protect elderly citizens from the devastating impact of coastal flooding caused by storms and cyclones, a new study reveals. Both cities are highly exposed to storm-induced flooding and analysis shows that - with two distinct systems of emergency operation – there are significant differences between them in evacuating elderly people to safety. After studying emergency operations in the cities, experts devised a blueprint for efficient evacuation that could be used in similar flood-threatened cities around the globe such as Mumbai, Bangkok, Jakarta, Ho Chi Minh City, Miami, ...

Dangers of smell impairment highlighted in new research

2024-03-11
Peer-reviewed – survey - people  More than a third of people who self-identify as having a smell disorder have had at least one gas safety scare in the last five years, according to new research.  The study, led by the University of East Anglia (UEA) in collaboration with the charity Fifth Sense, asked people who cannot smell well what safety concerns they had and if they had experienced any hazardous events.  A total of 432 people responded to the online survey, which was conducted from February 25 to September 28, 2022, and distributed via the charity.  It ...

Leonid Sazanov wins Schrödinger Award

Leonid Sazanov wins Schrödinger Award
2024-03-11
At school, he was inspired by Schrödinger´s book ‘What is Life?’. Now, several decades later, Leonid Sazanov is awarded the Erwin Schrödinger Prize by the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW). The scientist heads a research group at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) and was honored “for his outstanding achievements in the field of structural biology of membrane protein complexes.” Sazanov is the sixth ISTA scientist to receive the prestigious Schrödinger Award. “I am especially ...

Does worsening metabolic syndrome increase the risk of developing cancer?

2024-03-11
New research indicates that individuals with persistent and worsening metabolic syndrome—which encompasses conditions such as high blood pressure, elevated blood sugar, excess abdominal fat, and abnormal cholesterol—face an elevated risk of developing various types of cancer. The findings are published by Wiley online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. In the study, 44,115 adults in China with an average age of 49 years were categorized into 4 different trajectories based on trends from ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

From hydrogen bonds to high performance: The future of aqueous batteries

Ancient brachiopods used tiny bristles to maintain “social distancing,” study reveals

320 million trees are killed by lightning each year — Considerable biomass loss

Research alert: Gene signature an early warning system for aggressive pancreatic cancer, study finds

The Covid-19 pandemic may have aged our brains, according to a new study

Pitt study uncovers how the immune system fends off gut parasites

Tiny fossil suggests spiders and their relatives originated in the sea

Psychological and physical health of a preterm birth cohort at age 35

Leading the way comes at a cost for feathered friends

Psychedelics and cannabis offer treatment hope for people with eating disorders

Answer ALS launches AI drug development collaboration with GATC Health, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, and Tulane to advance ALS treatment discovery

Restricted diet triggers individualized microbiome shifts without community convergence

How tickling builds trust: Scientists identify oxytocin’s role in human-rat bonding

LAHB: A bioplastic that may solve marine plastic pollution problem

The Holobiont Revolution: How wheat is becoming more climate-resilient through nature-based plant breeding and machine learning

International radiology consensus outlines best practices for post-COVID CT

Yellowstone aspen showing signs of recovery following 1995 reintroduction of wolves to park

Post-COVID-related lung abnormalities almost always regress

City of Hope research spotlight, June 2025

SwRI completes 8-year-long NEXTCAR energy efficiency project

Investigational anti-cancer DNA therapy eases chronic osteoarthritis pain in dogs—pointing to a new non-opioid path for humans

US adolescents with cannabis use disorder failing to complete rehabilitation

Researchers at Notre Dame detect ‘forever chemicals’ in reusable feminine hygiene products

Study finds “forever chemicals” in reusable feminine hygiene products

Four abstracts using Bronchiectasis and NTM Research Registry data presented at World Bronchiectasis Conference

Social steps to mitigate mental illness

Study finds key role for non-neural brain cells in processing vision

AIPasta—using AI to paraphrase and repeat disinformation

Chung-Ang University researchers develop innovative air filter inspired by nasal hair

Exploring the dynamic partnership between FtsZ and ZapA protein

[Press-News.org] New research shows sexual minority adults more willing to use digital health tools for public health