TY - UNPB

T1 - Patterns of Internet Use in People with Severe Mental Ill Health: A Typology and Outline of Difficulties and Potential Protective Strategies.

AU - Walker, Lauren

AU - Wadman, Ruth

AU - Taylor, Olivia

AU - Heron, Paul

AU - Newbronner, Liz

AU - Spanakis, Panagiotis

AU - Crosland, Suzanne

AU - Peckham, Emily

N1 - Disclaimer: © The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review. Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a CC BY license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.

PY - 2023/12/5

Y1 - 2023/12/5

N2 - Background:People with Severe Mental Ill health (SMI) face profound health inequalities, which may be exacerbated by increased rates of digital exclusion and the movement of health services and provisions to being offered online.Objective:To explore internet and digital technology usage for those with SMI, with particular focus on the drivers of the relationship between high internet use and poorer self-reported mental health.Methods:We carried out a qualitative interview study with 16 participants with SMI. The participant sample was drawn from a wider investigation of the impacts of the pandemic and restrictions on the health and wellbeing of people with SMI. Data was analysed using framework analysis.Results:Participant experiences fell into three broad categories; those who had a positive or neutral online experience, those who had negative or difficult experiences of being online and low users / those with low digital literacy. Of the participants with difficult experiences (those who reported strong unpleasant feelings) our analysis revealed two interesting categories, those with worries and fears related to the online world and those who had difficulty limiting their internet use. Also of note was the description of conscious / mindful interaction with the online world.Conclusions:People with SMI (along with the general population) are expected to conduct more of their activities of daily living online in the post pandemic world. This research shows that the majority of internet users with SMI have positive or neutral experiences. However, our typology reveals subgroups of the SMI population for whom there is a relationship between internet use and difficult feelings. These subgroups can be identified by asking questions about online activities, time spent online, feelings, difficulties / issues experienced and use of gambling, dating, adult content, and conspiracy theory websites online. Our conclusions point to further work in collaboration with people with lived experience to modify and test this typology.

AB - Background:People with Severe Mental Ill health (SMI) face profound health inequalities, which may be exacerbated by increased rates of digital exclusion and the movement of health services and provisions to being offered online.Objective:To explore internet and digital technology usage for those with SMI, with particular focus on the drivers of the relationship between high internet use and poorer self-reported mental health.Methods:We carried out a qualitative interview study with 16 participants with SMI. The participant sample was drawn from a wider investigation of the impacts of the pandemic and restrictions on the health and wellbeing of people with SMI. Data was analysed using framework analysis.Results:Participant experiences fell into three broad categories; those who had a positive or neutral online experience, those who had negative or difficult experiences of being online and low users / those with low digital literacy. Of the participants with difficult experiences (those who reported strong unpleasant feelings) our analysis revealed two interesting categories, those with worries and fears related to the online world and those who had difficulty limiting their internet use. Also of note was the description of conscious / mindful interaction with the online world.Conclusions:People with SMI (along with the general population) are expected to conduct more of their activities of daily living online in the post pandemic world. This research shows that the majority of internet users with SMI have positive or neutral experiences. However, our typology reveals subgroups of the SMI population for whom there is a relationship between internet use and difficult feelings. These subgroups can be identified by asking questions about online activities, time spent online, feelings, difficulties / issues experienced and use of gambling, dating, adult content, and conspiracy theory websites online. Our conclusions point to further work in collaboration with people with lived experience to modify and test this typology.

U2 - 10.2196/preprints.55072

DO - 10.2196/preprints.55072

M3 - Preprint

BT - Patterns of Internet Use in People with Severe Mental Ill Health: A Typology and Outline of Difficulties and Potential Protective Strategies.

PB - JMIR Publications

ER -