Residential accessibility to information technology retailers and self reported computer use among patients attending community clinics

The actual mechanisms that maintain the individual disparities in home computer use and internet access that are collectively termed “the digital divide” remain unclear. We hypothesized that geographic accessibility to IT retailers would independently influence community clinic patients self reported use of computers at home thus limiting their ability to access health related information via the internet. To test this we obtained information on the locations of IT retailers in Los Angeles County, California and generated accessibility scores for the patient’s home residence. Geographic measures of accessibility to IT retailers independently predicted clinic patient’s self reported use of computers at home, and this effect was driven by low income individuals. Our results indicate that the causes of the digital divide are influenced by less commonly considered factors such as local IT retailer availability