Information and Communication Technology Access and Use Among Low-Income Latino Immigrant Parents

• Published in: Maternal and child health journal Vol. 25; no. 12; pp. 1807 - 1813
• Main Authors: Reuland, Carolyn J., Godage, Sashini K., Wu, Linxuan, Valenzuela-Araujo, Doris, Cortez, José Dominguez, Polk, Sarah, DeCamp, Lisa Ross
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.12.2021; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Access to information; Brief Reports; Communication; E-health; Family; Gynecology; Health aspects; Health care disparities; Health literacy; Hispanic Americans; Hispanic people; Immigrants; Income; Information technology; Low income groups; Management; Maternal and Child Health; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; NCT; NCT02647814; Pediatrics; Population Economics; Public Health; Smartphones; Sociology; Technology application; Telemedicine; United States; mHealth; Pediatrics; Income Stratification; Technology access/use; Latino; Health Literacy
• ISSN: 1092-7875; 1573-6628
• DOI: 10.1007/s10995-021-03265-6

Introduction Development of mHealth interventions to address health disparities for Latino children in immigrant families requires understanding access to and use of information and communication technology. Methods We examined access to information and communication technology and use of common applications/programs by low-income immigrant Latino parents of infants to inform development of mHealth interventions for this population. Latino immigrant parents reported technology use and access of common applications/software via survey. Results Of the 157 participants, we found nearly all parents owned a smartphone and that 60% accessed the internet only via their smartphone. Around one-quarter of participants had access to unlimited data. Frequent use of text messaging was common, but frequent email use was less common. Less than 10% of participants frequently used health-oriented applications. Discussion Our findings suggest that mHealth interventions that use data, email, or an application interface may not have the intended reach or effectiveness among low-income immigrant Latino parents. Consideration of these findings is important in guiding the development of future mHealth programs for the low-income Latino population. This study was registered at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT02647814).