Impact of the use of electronic health tools on the psychological and emotional well-being of electronic health service users (The Seventh Tromsø Study - Part 3): Population-based questionnaire study

Autor: Andrius Budrionis, Luis Marco-Ruiz, Johan Gustav Bellika, Sunday Oluwafemi Oyeyemi, Kassaye Yitbarek Yigzaw, Rolf Wynn, Svein Bergvik
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2020
Předmět:
Adult
Male
Telemedicine
020205 medical informatics
Cost effectiveness
media_common.quotation_subject
Emotions
Applied psychology
Population
education
confused
reassured
Health Informatics
02 engineering and technology
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Tromsø study
Surveys and Questionnaires
anxious
Health care
0202 electrical engineering
electronic engineering
information engineering

eHealth
Humans
VDP::Medical disciplines: 700::Health sciences: 800::Health service and health administration research: 806
030212 general & internal medicine
health-related internet use
Aged
media_common
Aged
80 and over

Original Paper
education.field_of_study
VDP::Medisinske Fag: 700::Helsefag: 800::Helsetjeneste- og helseadministrasjonsforskning: 806
effect
business.industry
knowledgeable
Middle Aged
Service provider
health information
Emotional well-being
Feeling
Female
business
Psychology
Zdroj: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Popis: BackgroundElectronic health (eHealth) has been described as a silver bullet for addressing how challenges of the current health care system may be solved by technological solutions in future strategies and visions for modern health care. However, the evidence of its effects on service quality and cost effectiveness remains unclear. In addition, patients’ psychological and emotional reactions to using eHealth tools are rarely addressed by the scientific literature.ObjectiveThis study aimed to assess how the psychological and emotional well-being of eHealth service users is affected by the use of eHealth tools.MethodsWe analyzed data from a population-based survey in Norway, conducted in the years 2015-2016 and representing 10,604 eHealth users aged over 40 years, to identify how the use of eHealth tools was associated with feeling anxious, confused, knowledgeable, or reassured. Associations between these four emotional outcomes and the use of four types of eHealth services (Web search engines, video search engines, health apps, and social media) were analyzed using logistic regression models.ResultsThe use of eHealth tools made 72.41% (6740/9308) of the participants feel more knowledgeable and 47.49% (4421/9308) of the participants feel more reassured about their health status. However, 25.69% (2392/9308) reported feeling more anxious and 27.88% (2595/9308) reported feeling more confused using eHealth tools. A high level of education and not having a full-time job were associated with positive reactions and emotions (feeling more knowledgeable and reassured), whereas low self-reported health status and not having enough friends who could provide help and support predicted negative reactions and emotions (ie, feeling anxious and confused). Overall, the positive emotional effects of eHealth use (feeling knowledgeable and reassured) were relatively more prevalent among users aged over 40 years than the negative emotional effects (ie, feeling anxious and confused). About one-fourth of eHealth users reported being more confused and anxious after using eHealth services.ConclusionsThe search for health information on the internet can be motivated by a range of factors and needs (not studied in this study), and people may experience a range of reactions and feelings following health information searching on the Web. Drawing on prior studies, we categorized reactions as positive and negative reactions. Some participants had negative reactions, which is challenging to resolve and should be taken into consideration by eHealth service providers when designing services (ie, including concrete information about how users can get more help and support). There is a need for more studies examining a greater range of reactions to online health information and factors that might predict negative reactions to health information on the Web.
Databáze: OpenAIRE