Cyber-Victimization of People With Chronic Conditions and Disabilities: A Systematic Review of Scope and Impact

Abstract

The victimization of individuals with chronic conditions or disabilities is prevalent with severe impact at psychological and physiological levels. With the increasing use of technology these experiences were further reshaped. This systematic review aimed at scoping the experiences of cyber-victimization of people living with chronic conditions or disabilities and examine the documented impact on them. Following a four-stage search strategy in several databases including MEDLINE, Embase, PsychINFO, CINAHL, Cochrane and snowballing of references, a total of 2,922 studies were scanned and 10 studies were eventually included. Quality assessment was done in two phases using tools specific to observational studies and cyber-victimization research. A narrative synthesis of reported results covered a total of 3,070 people. Sample size ranged between 42 and 823 participants, and the age range was 6-71 years with a majority of White ethnic backgrounds. Most studies (n=9) were cross sectional. The prevalence range of cyber-victimization was 2%-41.7% based on variable definitions, duration and methods. Targeted conditions included physical impairments, intellectual disabilities and specific chronic diseases. The most common documented impact was psychological/psychiatric, mainly depression followed by anxiety and distress. Somatic health complaints and self-harm were also reported. We concluded that people with chronic conditions and disabilities were consistently at higher risk of victimization with devastating health complications. Research gaps were identified such as the need to address more conditions and acknowledge differences between heterogeneous health conditions. Other recommendations include allowing flexibility and accountability to patients/victims in research design, education on victimization and health consequences, and improving primary care.

Blockchain and IoMT against Physical Abuse: Bullying in Schools as a Case Study

“…In bullying experiences, there is a perceived power imbalance between the bully and the victim, thus, it can also be described as using power to control others and cause distress [13]. Bullying is a local and international issue that is consistently associated with a negative impact on the victims [3,14,15]. In Sweden, a study of 5248 schoolchildren reported that 14% experienced bullying in the past two months.…”

“…The impact of bullying is potentially more severe on vulnerable groups such as people with disabilities and chronic conditions [3,4]. In Canada, individuals who have epilepsy were victimised compared to their peers in schools.…”

“…The underlying causes were "being different" [20,21] or having a different lifestyle as part of the self-management in conditions such as diabetes and asthma [22]. Nonetheless, the impact of such conditions is potentially devastating and has immediate and long-term medical manifestation [3].…”

“…Furthermore, cyberbullying is a form of bullying that occurs when such experiences take place partially or fully in cyberspace, such as bullying through email, instant messaging, chatrooms, or webpages, or by receiving digital images or messages to a phone [3,11]. Cyberbullying could take the form of offensive messages sent to a target (harassment), an online fight between two people, posting personal data of the target online without permission, blocking a person from a social list, impersonation, stalking, or sexting (sending nude pictures of the target without their knowledge or consent) [23].…”

Cyber-Disability Hate Cases in the UK: The Documentation by the Police and Potential Barriers to Reporting

“…These are either pure online offences (cyber dependent) or as a continuation of traditional crimes using electronic communication (cyber-enabled) [17]. Online offences were found to have no less devastating multi-faceted impact on the victims compared to their offline counterparts [18,19]. Cyber experiences are complicated by the anonymity of offenders, the availability of a broad range of means to employ, longevity of exposure due to permanent comments online and unavoidability by physical absence from a specific context [20].…”