Date of Award

6-1-2013

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Organizational Unit

Graduate School of Social Work

First Advisor

Walter LaMendola, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Kathy Green

Third Advisor

Leslie Hasche

Keywords

Aging, Chronic disease, Internet, Self-management, Technology, Web-based

Abstract

Many people suffer from chronic disease; however, older adults are at greatest risk of chronic conditions. Although social workers regularly engage with chronically ill older adults, they are not noticeably involved with the research and development of chronic disease management. As such, with recent movements toward health information technology, the efficacy of technology-based chronic disease management is not well established for older adults. Informed by theories of self-management, human development, and technology design, this research investigated lifespan differences of web-based chronic disease self-management. Using a sequential mixed methods design, a secondary data analysis of a diabetes specific web-based self-management intervention (n=462) was performed, followed by qualitative focus groups with 40 older intervention participants, and then mixed for overall interpretation. Results indicated that social workers must take a leadership role in the evaluation and implementation of web-based self-management for older adults to address identified lifespan differences.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Jennifer Marie Dickman Portz

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

en

File Size

231 p.

Discipline

Social work

Download



Included in

Social Work Commons

Share

COinS