↓ Skip to main content

A study of mobile phone use among patients with noncommunicable diseases in La Paz, Bolivia: implications for mHealth research and development

Overview of attention for article published in Globalization and Health, July 2015
Altmetric Badge

About this Attention Score

  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (90th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (82nd percentile)

Mentioned by

news
1 news outlet
twitter
9 X users
facebook
1 Facebook page

Citations

dimensions_citation
35 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
210 Mendeley
You are seeing a free-to-access but limited selection of the activity Altmetric has collected about this research output. Click here to find out more.
Title
A study of mobile phone use among patients with noncommunicable diseases in La Paz, Bolivia: implications for mHealth research and development
Published in
Globalization and Health, July 2015
DOI 10.1186/s12992-015-0115-y
Pubmed ID
Authors

Kevin Kamis, Mary R. Janevic, Nicolle Marinec, Rachel Jantz, Helen Valverde, John D. Piette

Abstract

While global momentum supporting mobile health (mHealth) research and development is increasing, it is imperative to assess the potential fit of mHealth programs in local settings. We describe the penetration of mobile technologies among Bolivian patients with noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) to inform research on mHealth interventions for the Andean region as well as low- and middle-income countries more generally. Five-hundred and fifty-nine NCD patients were identified from outpatient clinics affiliated with four hospitals in the cities of La Paz and El Alto. Respondents completed surveys about their use of standard mobile phones and smartphones. Respondents also provided information about their sociodemographic characteristics, health status, and access to care. We used descriptive statistics and logistic regression to understand the variation in mobile phone use across groups defined by patient characteristics associated with health service access and socioeconomic vulnerability. Respondents were on average 52 years of age, 33 % had at most a sixth grade education, and 30 % spoke an indigenous language in their home. Eighty-six percent owned a mobile phone and 13 % owned a smartphone. Fifty-eight percent of mobile phone users sent or received a text message at least once a week. Some mobile phone owners reported connectivity problems, such as lacking mobile signal (9 %) or credit to make a call (17 %). Younger age, male gender, high health literacy, more years of education, and having fewer previously diagnosed NCDs were positively related to mobile phone ownership. Among mobile phone users, respondents with lower education and other indicators of vulnerability were less likely than their counterparts to report frequent usage of texting services. Mobile phones have high penetration among NCD patients in La Paz, Bolivia, including among those who are older, less educated, and who have other socioeconomic risk factors. Smartphone use is still relatively uncommon, even among patients who are younger and more educated. While certain patient characteristics such as age or education impact patients' use of text messaging, mobile phone-based mHealth interventions are feasible strategies for increasing NCD patients' access to self-management support between face-to-face clinical encounters.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 9 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 210 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United Kingdom 1 <1%
Switzerland 1 <1%
Unknown 208 99%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 37 18%
Researcher 26 12%
Student > Ph. D. Student 24 11%
Student > Bachelor 24 11%
Lecturer 14 7%
Other 39 19%
Unknown 46 22%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 44 21%
Nursing and Health Professions 36 17%
Social Sciences 20 10%
Computer Science 16 8%
Psychology 14 7%
Other 27 13%
Unknown 53 25%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 16. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 22 August 2015.
All research outputs
#2,021,183
of 23,798,792 outputs
Outputs from Globalization and Health
#338
of 1,136 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#26,203
of 264,192 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Globalization and Health
#4
of 17 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,798,792 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 91st percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,136 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 22.0. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 70% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 264,192 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 90% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 17 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 82% of its contemporaries.