A Systematic Review of Patient Acceptance of Consumer Health Information Technology
- Calvin K L Or, PhDa,
- Ben-Tzion Karsh, PhDb
- aDepartment of Manufacturing Engineering and Engineering Management, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong
- bDepartment of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI
- Correspondence: Ben-Tzion Karsh, PhD, 3218 Mechanical Engineering, 1513 University Avenue, Madison, WI; e-mail: <bkarsh{at}engr.wisc.edu>.
- Received 10 June 2008
- Accepted 1 April 2009
Abstract
A systematic literature review was performed to identify variables promoting consumer health information technology (CHIT) acceptance among patients. The electronic bibliographic databases Web of Science, Business Source Elite, CINAHL, Communication and Mass Media Complete, MEDLINE, PsycArticles, and PsycInfo were searched. A cited reference search of articles meeting the inclusion criteria was also conducted to reduce misses. Fifty-two articles met the selection criteria. Among them, 94 different variables were tested for associations with acceptance. Most of those tested (71%) were patient factors, including sociodemographic characteristics, health- and treatment-related variables, and prior experience or exposure to computer/health technology. Only ten variables were related to human-technology interaction; 16 were organizational factors; and one was related to the environment. In total, 62 (66%) were found to predict acceptance in at least one study. Existing literature focused largely on patient-related factors. No studies examined the impact of social and task factors on acceptance, and few tested the effects of organizational or environmental factors on acceptance. Future research guided by technology acceptance theories should fill those gaps to improve our understanding of patient CHIT acceptance, which in turn could lead to better CHIT design and implementation.
Footnotes
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This study was funded in part by a grant from the National Library of Medicine (NLM-LM 6249) to Patricia Flatley Brennan, PI. The authors thank Samuel Alper, Richard Holden, and A. Joy Rivera for their helpful comments on the earlier versions of the manuscript and thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.
