Self-reported use of internet by cervical cancer clients in two National Referral Hospitals in Kenya
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Cervical cancer remains a devastating disease in Kenya accounting for more than 2000 deaths each year. Lack of information on cervical cancer prevention and management has been attributed to the apathy among women in seeking health interventions. Use of internet-based and mobile e-health tools could increase information access among cervical cancer patients. The objective of the study was; to establish the extent of use of mobile phones and internet by cervical cancer patients in accessing information related to cancer treatment and management.; find out the characteristics of patients associated with internet use and identify barriers faced by the patients in internet use. A cross sectional descriptive survey of 199 cervical patients visiting the two main referral hospitals in Kenya was done. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data. FINDINGS: The average length of illness was 2.43 years (SD ± 3.0). Only 7.5 %( n=15) reported to having used the internet as a source of information. 92.5 %( n=184) did not use internet. With Multiple options, 70.9% did not know how to use a computer, 29.2% did not have access to a computer, 14.6% lacked the money to use computers at the local cyber cafe while other barriers identified accounted for 11.1%. Patients reported that the internet had an important role in the management of cancer of the cervix in health education (17.6%), online consultation (14.6%), booking of patients (13.6%), referrals (8.5%) and collecting data (7%). The 96.5% of the respondents who had access to a mobile phone, recommended mobile phones for health education messages (31.7%), reminder alerts for medication (29.7%) and booking appointments (21.6%). There was a statistically significant association between income of the patients and internet use (p = 0.026) in this study. CONCLUSIONS: There is low level use of the internet by cervical cancer clients attended in Public referral facilities in Kenya. This was attributed to; lack of knowledge on how to use computers and lack of access to a computer. High level of access to mobile phones was reported. This is an indicator of great potential for use of mobile phones in the management of cervical cancer through short messaging services (sms), without internet connectivity. There is even greater potential to internet use through web access via mobile phones.
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In 8 included studies, mHealth interventions connected a patient to a provider, directly facilitating patient access to professional care.
“In 8 studies, mHealth interventions connected a patient to a provider, thus directly facilitating patient access to (professional) care [20, 37, 46, 50, 51, 53–55].”
From A realist review of mobile phone-based health interventions for non-communicable disease management in sub-Saharan Africa (2017) · cites this paper as [53]
If patients faced access barriers such as long travel times, waiting times, and high travel costs, mHealth interventions were perceived to be useful.
“If patients faced access barriers such as long travel times, waiting times, and high travel costs, mHealth interventions were perceived to be useful [20, 42, 45, 46, 48–50, 52, 53, 55].”
From A realist review of mobile phone-based health interventions for non-communicable disease management in sub-Saharan Africa (2017) · cites this paper as [53]
For patients, the most important predisposing characteristic associated with the perception that an mHealth intervention was more useful than an alternative was patients' cultural and social acceptance of the mobile technology, involving familiarity with the technology in the community and absence of negative myths.
“For patients, the most important predisposing characteristic associated with the perception that a mHealth intervention was more useful than an alternative was the patients’ cultural and social acceptance of the mobile technology, which involved familiarity with the technology in the community and absence of negative myths [38, 40, 41, 46, 53, 55].”
From A realist review of mobile phone-based health interventions for non-communicable disease management in sub-Saharan Africa (2017) · cites this paper as [53]
Reduced time away from home or work was an enabling resource for patients.
“Other enabling resources were assurance of privacy [43, 48], support from partners/relatives [51, 55], reduced costs of travel, and reduced time away from home or work [24, 50–53].”
From A realist review of mobile phone-based health interventions for non-communicable disease management in sub-Saharan Africa (2017) · cites this paper as [53]
Reduced costs of travel was an enabling resource for patients.
“Other enabling resources were assurance of privacy [43, 48], support from partners/relatives [51, 55], reduced costs of travel, and reduced time away from home or work [24, 50–53].”
From A realist review of mobile phone-based health interventions for non-communicable disease management in sub-Saharan Africa (2017) · cites this paper as [53]
For patients, access to mobile phones was one of the two most important enabling resources necessary for a mHealth intervention to be perceived useful.
“For patients, unsurprisingly, the two most important enabling resources necessary for a mHealth intervention to be (perceived to be) useful were access to mobile phones [37, 45, 46, 50, 53–55] (also possible through borrowing [46, 50]) and the availability of a functioning stable telecommunications network [20, 36, 39, 42, 45, 47, 48, 52, 55].”
From A realist review of mobile phone-based health interventions for non-communicable disease management in sub-Saharan Africa (2017) · cites this paper as [53]
Low complexity of the technology (e.g., SMS and icons) was an enabling resource influencing patients' perceived ease of use of mHealth interventions.
“Enabling resources influencing patients’ perceived ease of use of mHealth interventions included the durability and portability of mobile phones [37, 55] and the low complexity of the technology, for example, short message service (SMS) and icons [53, 55].”
From A realist review of mobile phone-based health interventions for non-communicable disease management in sub-Saharan Africa (2017) · cites this paper as [53]
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- Authors
- Kivuti-Bitok, L. W., McDonnell, G., Pokhariyal, G. P., & Roudsari, A. V.
- Affiliations
- University of Nairobi (KE)
- UNSW Sydney (AU)
- University of Victoria (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Kivuti-Bitok, Lucy W
- Venue
- BMC Research Notes
- Published
- 2012-10-09
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 559-559
- ISSN
- 1756-0500 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3576333
- OpenAlex
- W1975238293
- Cited by
- 17
- References
- 24
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 2.27
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- BMC Research Notes (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- University of Nairobi Research Archive (University of Nairobi) (acceptedVersion)
- UVic’s Research and Learning Repository (University of Victoria) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Commission for Science and Technology
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health Literacy and Information Accessibility
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Mobile Health and mHealth Applications
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › ICT in Developing Communities
- Keywords
- cervical cancer, internet use, mobile devices, e-health, health information seeking, internet access barriers, computer literacy, patient income, short message service, teleconsultation, Kenya
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aged, Uterine Cervical Neoplasms, Cross-Sectional Studies, Educational Status, Female, Health Services Needs and Demand, Humans, Income, Kenya, Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice, Male, Middle Aged, Surveys and Questionnaires, Referral and Consultation, Telemedicine, Internet, Access to Information, Cell Phone, Self Report
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