Disparities in Using Technology to Access Health Information: Race Versus Health Literacy

We analyzed data from a cross-sectional study of adults (age $18 years) with type 2 diabetes from a federally qualified health center in Nashville, TN. Research assistants worked with clinic personnel to recruit eligible patients arriving for appointments. Research assistants conducted in-person interviews to collect self-reported information on demographics and technology access and use (Table 1), administered the Short Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (3), and reviewed medical charts. All participants received a point-of-care (POC) A1C test on the day of participation (4). Only 38% had a chartreviewed A1C that same day (with POC, r 5 0.87, P , 0.001), requiring use of POC. We used SAS version 9.3 to limit the analysis to non-Hispanic white (NHW) and African American/black (AA/black) participants, and conducted t tests and x tests to make comparisons by race and, separately, by HL status (limited [inadequate/marginal] vs. adequate).