Experiences of Individuals with Spinal Cord Injury with Internet-based Health Resources

Research Objectives To explore what experiences individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) have with internet-based health resources. Design Qualitative descriptive study. Setting This study was conducted in the general community setting. Participants Community-dwelling individuals with SCI were recruited across Canada. The average age of the 20 participants was 48 years old; 8 participants were male, 12 participants experienced traumatic SCI. Interventions Not applicable. Main Outcome Measures Data were collected via one-on-one, semi-structured interviews with a sub-sample of 20 participants enrolled in a larger, clinical trial. Analysis of the transcripts was undertaken using a five-step process of thematic analysis. Results Three overarching themes were identified regarding the experiences of individuals with SCI with internet-based resources. These themes included: (1) mistrusting health information available online, (2) filtering internet resources with help from others, and (3) connecting with others to promote social interaction. Conclusions By exploring the experiences individuals with SCI have with internet-based health resources, these findings can inform researchers and clinicians on how this population engages with telemedicine, mobile app, and web apps, while also guiding the development of future eHealth resources and technologies. Author(s) Disclosures We report no real or perceived conflicts of interest.