Poster Presentation Clinical Oncology Society of Australia Annual Scientific Meeting 2023

The impact of socioeconomic factors and social support on digital intervention engagement in people with breast cancer: a secondary data analysis. (#261)

Bei Zhang 1 , Lisa Beatty 1 , Emma Kemp 2
  1. College of Education, Psychology and Social Work, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
  2. College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

Introduction:

Engagement with digital health services may be limited for individuals living with socioeconomically disadvantaged circumstances, due to such factors as potential lack of reliable access to, proficiency with, and/or relevance of digital resources1,2. However, individuals with strong social support may have increased digital health engagement through assistance from family members or friends, (e.g., being taught to use computers, help with practical barriers)3.  This study aimed to investigate the impact of socioeconomic factors and social support on engagement with the Finding My Way and Finding My Way- Advanced digital psychosocial interventions, for individuals diagnosed with breast cancer.

Method:

A secondary analysis was conducted to examine associations between socioeconomic factors (education, employment, income, area-level advantage/disadvantage) and levels of social support reported at baseline, and indices of intervention engagement (number of modules accessed, number of pages viewed, number of logins). An individual socioeconomic status index (SESI) was calculated from education, employment, and income data. Level of association between variables was analysed using Spearman’s correlation coefficient, as data were ranked/non-parametric in nature.

Results:

Data from 116 participants with breast cancer were analysed. Of the socioeconomic factors assessed, only employment status was weakly associated with intervention engagement, with employed participants viewing a greater number of pages (r = 0.21, p =0.024).  Social support was weakly associated with all engagement indices (number of modules accessed (r=0.20, p= 0.031) number of pages viewed (r=0.282, p = 0.002), and number of logins (r=0.19, p=0.045).

Conclusion:

Employment may support digital intervention engagement in people with breast cancer, potentially due to such factors as workplace access to devices and/or knowledge of digital systems gained through workplace experience. However, social support was more consistently associated with intervention engagement in these cohorts. Future studies could investigate the impact of socioeconomic factors and social support on digital intervention engagement specifically in people with cancer living with socioeconomic disadvantage.

  1. Latulippe, K., Hamel, C., & Giroux, D. (2017). Social health inequalities and eHealth: a literature review with qualitative synthesis of theoretical and empirical studies. Journal of medical Internet research, 19(4), e136.
  2. Kemp, E., Trigg, J., Beatty, L., Christensen, C., Dhillon, H. M., Maeder, A., Williams, P. A. H., & Koczwara, B. (2021). Health literacy, digital health literacy and the implementation of digital health technologies in cancer care: the need for a strategic approach. Health Promot J Austr, 32 Suppl 1, 104-114.
  3. Asmar, A., Audenhove, L. v., & Marien, I. (2020). Social Support for Digital Inclusion: Towards a Typology of Social Support Patterns. Social Inclusion, 8(2), 138-150.