Readiness to accept health information and communication technologies: A population-based survey of community-dwelling older adults

• Published in: International journal of medical informatics (Shannon, Ireland) Ireland), 2019-10, Vol.130, p.103950-103950, Article 103950
• Main Authors: Abolhassani, Nazanin, Santos-Eggimann, Brigitte, Chiolero, Arnaud, Santschi, Valérie, Henchoz, Yves
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acceptance; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Community-dwelling older adults; Female; Health information and communication technologies; Humans; Independent Living - psychology; Information Technology - statistics & numerical data; Male; Medical Informatics - statistics & numerical data; Middle Aged; Patient Acceptance of Health Care - psychology; Patient Acceptance of Health Care - statistics & numerical data; Population Surveillance; Surveys and Questionnaires
• ISSN: 1386-5056; 1872-8243
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2019.08.010

The development of health information and communication technologies (HICTs) could modify the quality and cost of healthcare services delivered to an aging population. However, the acceptance of HICTs — a prerequisite for users to benefit from them — remains a challenge. This population-based study aimed to 1) explore the acceptance of HICTs by community-dwelling older adults as well as the factors associated to the overall acceptance/refusal of HICTs; 2) identify the factors associated with confidentiality (i.e., access to data allowed to physicians only versus to all caregivers) in the subgroup of older adults willing to accept HICTs. A total of 3195 community-dwelling 69–83 year-old members of the Lausanne cohort 65+ were included. In 2017, participants filled out a 9-item questionnaire to assess their acceptance of HICTs (“yes without reluctance”; “yes but with reluctance”; “no”). A bivariate analysis was conducted to examine gender and age differences in the acceptance of HICTs. A multivariable logistic regression was performed to model 1) accepting all or rejecting all HICTs items; 2) willing to share HICTs items with physicians only versus all caregivers. The answer “acceptance without reluctance” ranged from 26.4% to 70.4% across HICTs and was the most frequent answer to six out of nine HICT items. For every HICT item, the acceptance rate decreased across age categories in women. Overall, 20.2% accepted all the HICTs without reluctance and 9.9% rejected them all. Older age and a lower level of education were significantly associated with both accepting all HICTs without reluctance (OR = 0.78 and OR = 0.65, respectively) and rejecting all HICTs (OR = 1.54 and OR = 2.89, respectively). Women and participants with health vulnerability (depressive symptoms, difficulty in activities of daily living (ADLs)) were less likely to accept data accessibility to non-physicians. Acceptance of HICTs was relatively high. To deploy HICTs in the older population, demographic, socioeconomic and health profiles, alongside confidentiality concerns, should be considered.