Computer-mediated Communication and Healthcare Satisfaction among Middle-aged Men Living with or without HIV

Abstract

Introduction Computer-mediated communication has a multifaceted effect on health care satisfaction. This relationship has not been studied among middle-aged men living with HIV. The current study extracted data from the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS) to examine the association between computer-mediated communication and health care satisfaction. Methods The MACS is a prospective study of more than 7000 sexual minority men living with and without HIV. The Understanding Patterns of Healthy Aging Among Men Who Have Sex With Men was a substudy of the MACS. Current analyses use cross-sectional data on 1063 participants from this substudy with survey data between October 2017 and March 2018. Patients ranked their top 3 methods for communicating with someone they trust. Latent class analysis was used to create classes of health care satisfaction. Multinomial logistic regression was used to estimate the effect of primary communication method on health care satisfaction class membership. Covariates included age, HIV status, race and ethnicity, education, and comorbidities. Interaction was tested between HIV serostatus and primary communication method. Results Regardless of HIV status, participants preferred in-person communication over computer-mediated communication and were satisfied with the health care they received. Participants who preferred computer-mediated communication were more likely to have low health care satisfaction. There was a statistically nonsignificant association of HIV status with preferred communication method and health care satisfaction. Conclusions We postulated that in-person communication promoted high health care satisfaction due to the process of rewarding face-to-face communication through the exchange of both verbal and nonverbal cues. However, patients’ preference of communication mode may be moderated by the context of consultation.