Ray Jones
Development of a Questionnaire and Cross-Sectional Survey of Patient eHealth Readiness and eHealth Inequalities
University of Plymouth
background many speak digital divide variation opportunity patients use internet health patient ehealth readiness binary difference rather distribution influenced personal capability provision services support costdigital divisions health addressed various initiatives comprehensive validated measure know effective could used randomized controlled trials rcts covering noninternetusers range internetusers objectivethe aim study develop validate selfcompleted questionnaire scoring system assess patient ehealth readiness examining spread scores ehealth inequalitiesthe intended use questionnaire scores rcts interventions aiming improve patient ehealth readiness reduce ehealth inequalities methodsbased four factors identified literature selfcompleted questionnaire using pragmatic combination factual attitude questions drafted piloted three stagesthis followed final populationbased crosssectional household survey 344 people used refine scoring systemresults patient ehealth readiness questionnaire perq includes questions used calculate four subscores patients perception 1 provision 2 personal ability confidence 3 interpersonal support 4 relative costs using internet healththese combined overall perq score 09 could used intervention studiesreduction standard deviation scores represents reduction ehealth inequalitiesconclusions perq appears acceptable participants british studiesthe scores produced appear valid enable assessment effectiveness interventions improve patient ehealth readiness reduce ehealth inequalitiessuch methods need continued evolution redevelopment environmentsfull documentation data published allow others develop tool