What is it about?
Many parents of children with chronic kidney disease (CKD) use their smartphones and the Internet to look for health information. They do this to learn more about their child’s illness and how to deal with it. We studied how often and why parents do this and what they do with the information they find. We found that smartphones and the Internet are helpful for these parents to get health information.
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Why is it important?
Our study is one of the first to explore how parents of children with chronic kidney disease (CKD) use smartphones to access health information. This is important because many parents of children with special needs seek more health information than other parents, but we don’t know much about how they use smartphones for this purpose. We found that most parents in our sample used smartphones to look for information about health and CKD, and that they were very interested in learning more about their child’s condition. This shows that smartphones can be a valuable tool for supporting these parents and improving their health literacy.
Perspectives
I hope our study will inspire more research on how smartphones and the Internet can help provide better information and support to children who suffer from chronic diseases and their families. I learned from the stories and experiences of the parents who participated in our study. I also enjoyed collaborating with other researchers from different disciplines and backgrounds. This publication is a milestone in my career, and I am grateful to everyone who contributed to it.”
Deise Garrido
Universidade de Sao Paulo Campus da Capital
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Patterns of Internet and smartphone use by parents of children with chronic kidney disease, PLoS ONE, February 2019, PLOS,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0212163.
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