{"doi":"10.1111/jgs.18319","title":"Prevalence of internet access and technology use among racially and ethnically diverse older adults with serious mental illness residing in boroughs of New York City","abstract":"The number of adults aged 50+ years with serious mental illness (SMI; schizophrenia spectrum disorder, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder) is rising in the United States.1 The 3.4 million older adults with SMI (2.9% of the US population) experience significant impairments in psychosocial functioning and physical health conditions and incur healthcare costs 2–3 times greater than older adults without SMI. The combined impacts of aging with SMI places this vulnerable group at-risk for hospitalization, early nursing home placement, and premature death.2, 3 People aged 18+ years with SMI (mean age of 44.4 [SD = 13.1] and 46 [SD = 12], respectively) engage with mobile health interventions (i.e., smartphones) that have shown to support their health and wellness.4, 5 As an initial step, this study explores the prevalence of internet access and technology use among older adults with SMI. Research shows internet-enabled devices provide resource-delivering interventions to assist people in managing chronic health conditions.5 The goal is to shed light on gaps in technology usage and accessibility that promote ways to use these technologies to improve overall health and wellness. The Bridge, a supportive housing agency with 26 residences and 500+ scatter-site apartments across Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx, surveyed all residents who are 50+ years using the self-report Older Adult Needs Assessment (OANA). Secondary data analyses were conducted on OANA data from November 2021 to March 2022. Data included 572 older adults with SMI who answered questions regarding their technology use. With a 100% response rate, data were collected at the Bridge residences electronically by trained team members of Dartmouth College. Data collection lasted 30–60 min. The majority of participants demographic and primary ICD diagnosis data (F2x and F3x) were extracted from medical records electronically by staff. Descriptive statistics were used to assess the demographic characteristics of the sample. Paired sample t-test explored differences in internet access and technology use. Analyses were conducted using Stata 14. This secondary data analysis was approved by the Dartmouth Health institutional review board. The study employs the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology reporting guidelines. The mean age of respondents was 60.6 years (SD 6.36 years), majority being Black or African American, White, and multiple races (53.5%, 35.5%, and 7.3%). All participants were receiving Medicaid (see Table 1). Due to being functionally different, participants were split into two groups: one being schizophrenia, schizotypal, delusional disorders and other nonmood psychotic disorders and the other being mood (affective) disorders. This allows us to see trends based on different diagnostic criteria. Internet access rates varied significantly, showing those with nonmood psychotic disorders reported personal internet access at a rate of 44.8%, while those with mood (affective) disorders reported 64.8% (p < 0.001). In total, 309 of the 572 total respondents (54.0%) reported personal internet access. All the technology types included in the study reported use, excluding virtual reality. There were no statistically significant differences in technology use by technology type except for tablet and computer use. Compared with those with nonmood psychotic disorders, those with mood disorders reported higher rates of daily, weekly, and monthly use of tablets (p = 0.009) and computers (p < 0.001) (see Table 2). This study includes the largest sample of racially and ethnically diverse older adults with SMI compared with all other published studies.4, 5 Non-smartphones and television-based interventions may be promising outlets to provide health and wellness services. TV has been not only an information enhancer but also one of the main agents of socialization through features such as distanced helping, support of services that promote so","journal":"Journal of the American Geriatrics Society","year":2023,"id":380684,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":4,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9641,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1146019,"name":"Rebecca Heller","orcid":"0000-0002-7292-5227","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1146374,"name":"Alison A. Brundrett","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1146375,"name":"Hannah Crowe‐Cumella","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1146020,"name":"Andrew Bohm","orcid":"0000-0003-4782-8430","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":801785,"name":"Karen L. Fortuna","orcid":"0000-0003-0343-2346","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":6,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:17:04.905707Z","pmid":"36918355","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}