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To the Editor: The use of Internet-based applications to support health management tasks has grown enormously.¹ Studies investigating these applications have focused on prevalence of or reasons for use. We evaluated the ability of a sample of older adults to use the Medicare.gov Web site to make decisions concerning eligibility for services and prescription drug plans.

Methods

Two hundred eighteen people responded to newspaper advertisements and flyers in community and senior centers in the greater Miami area through telephone contact. Participants were required to be aged at least 50 years; be cognitively unimpaired (Mini-Mental State Examination² score >26); have had computer experience (assessed via questionnaire³); be English speaking; and not have depressive symptoms or severe visual or hearing impairments. Following screening, 201 were eligible for participation, 64 of whom expressed lack of interest or did not report for the study. Participants were enrolled consecutively; 112 completed the protocol and were . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Sara J. Czaja, PhD
sczaja@med.miami.edu
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
Miami, Florida

Joseph Sharit, PhD
Department of Industrial Engineering
University of Miami

Sankaran N. Nair, MS
Center on Aging
University of Miami Miller School of Medicine

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