Karolinska Institutet, Dept of Learning, Informatics, Management and Ethics, Stockholm, Sweden.
Linköping University, Dept of Information and Computer Science (IDA) Linköping, Sweden.
Stud Health Technol Inform. 2022 Jun 29;295:12-15. doi: 10.3233/SHTI220647.
The main goals of the Swedish eHealth strategy are to enable citizens to achieve good and equal health and welfare, and to support self-determination and increased participation in society. We analyzed the relationship between these goals and the use of eHealth services offered for citizens prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data was collected through a national citizen survey issued in 2019 and 2021 to a sample size of 15.000 representative individuals each. Results showed that the use of eHealth services was highest in the 30-49 years age group and among respondents with high education. There were no major differences between respondents with high, medium, or low income, and neither between respondents with different degrees of self-perceived health, nor between native Swedish and non-Swedish respondents. Changes in use of different eHealth services over time were most probably related to the pandemic and are not significant. All age groups showed a similar relative increase regarding their use of eHealth services, except when searching the Internet for diagnosis and treatment where persons above 75 years of age had the largest increase. Most significant were the increase in online visits and the decrease in maintaining health, training, or food diaries. Strategic goals related to equity seem to be partly met as eHealth services are used to the same degree by different socio-economic groups. However, the older population uses eHealth services less than other age groups and a deeper understanding of the relationship between specific services and their impact on strategic goals is needed.
瑞典电子健康战略的主要目标是使公民能够实现良好和公平的健康和福利，并支持自主决策和更多地参与社会。我们分析了这些目标与在 COVID-19 大流行之前和期间为公民提供的电子健康服务使用之间的关系。数据是通过 2019 年和 2021 年向每个样本量为 15000 名代表性个体的全国公民调查收集的。结果表明，30-49 岁年龄组和受教育程度较高的受访者中使用电子健康服务的比例最高。高、中、低收入受访者之间没有重大差异，自我感知健康程度不同的受访者之间也没有差异，也没有瑞典本国人和非瑞典人之间的差异。随着时间的推移，不同电子健康服务使用情况的变化很可能与大流行有关，而且并不显著。所有年龄组在使用电子健康服务方面都表现出类似的相对增长，除了 75 岁以上的人在上网搜索诊断和治疗方面的增幅最大。最显著的是在线就诊的增加和保持健康、培训或饮食日记的减少。与公平相关的战略目标似乎在一定程度上得到了实现，因为不同社会经济群体对电子健康服务的使用程度相同。然而，老年人口使用电子健康服务的比例低于其他年龄组，需要更深入地了解特定服务与战略目标之间的关系及其对战略目标的影响。
