Browsing by Subject "Chronic conditions"
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Item Dyadic analyses of chronic conditions and distress within marriage : a gendered perspective(2014-05) Thomeer, Mieke Beth; Umberson, DebraChronic conditions negatively impact well-being, and the negative impact of a chronic condition can extend beyond the diagnosed person to his or her spouse. This association may be further influenced by gender, as gender can shape how individuals experience their own chronic conditions-- including what conditions they develop-- and how they react to the conditions and distress of their spouses. In my dissertation, I examine how one spouse’s chronic conditions are related to the other spouse's psychological distress over time. I address this using quantitative analysis of the Health and Retirement Study and qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews. In my quantitative analysis, I find that the association between one spouse’s chronic conditions and the other spouse’s distress differs by gender, number of conditions, whether one or both spouses have chronic conditions, and type of condition. Regarding number of conditions, a husband’s number of chronic conditions increases his wife’s distress more so than a wife’s number of chronic conditions increases her husband’s. These associations are mitigated by the chronically ill spouse’s own distress and functional limitations. Additionally, this gender difference is more pronounced if both spouses have chronic conditions compared to if only one has chronic conditions. Regarding type of condition, lung disease and stroke are the most negatively impactful for spouses’ distress, whereas high blood pressure, cancer, and arthritis are not related to spouses’ distress. All conditions, except for stroke, relate to husbands’ and wives’ distress similarly, but a husband's stroke increases a wife's distress initially whereas the wife's stroke increases the husband's distress over time. In my qualitative analysis, I find that when women are chronically ill, they continue to emotionally care for their husbands, which likely protects their husbands from psychological distress but exacerbates women’s own distress. My results point to the importance of promoting the psychological well-being of both spouses during periods of chronic conditions. This is especially critical for spouses of people with more than one condition, chronically ill women whose husbands are also chronically ill, and spouses of people experiencing stroke and lung disease.Item Health information tracking via mobile applications for individuals with chronic health conditions(2014-05) Vance, Jane Elizabeth; Warner, David C.By 2015, 149 million Americans are expected to be living with chronic health conditions (Anderson 2010). This number is expected to continue rising. Many chronic health conditions require those living with them to perform health self-management tasks on a regular basis. Nearly two in every five adults with one chronic condition and three out of every five adults with at least two chronic conditions track their health information. This paper investigates the use of mobile applications and the need to develop applications specifically designed for individuals living with chronic health conditions. Pew data are used to determine who is tracking their health information and how they are tracking it. Results from this analysis show that individuals with chronic health conditions have 69% greater odds of tracking health information than individuals who do not live with chronic conditions. Additionally, those with chronic conditions are 254% more likely than those without chronic conditions to track health indicators that are not related to diet, weight or exercise. These individuals are not, however, using mobile applications to track their health information. People with chronic health conditions have higher probabilities of tracking health information on paper or in their heads than their probability of tracking via a mobile application. However, the probability that individuals track health information via mobile apps increases when analyzing a subset of the population who own smartphones. After learning more about individuals with chronic conditions and their health information tracking habits, several mobile health applications are reviewed. The reviews of these applications include the features offered by the applications and their price. The paper concludes with several recommendations for developing and disseminating mobile health tracking applications to individuals with chronic conditions, as well as suggestions for future research.