Etingen Bella, Smith Bridget M, Shimada Stephanie L, Robinson Stephanie A, Higashi Robin T, Ndiwane Ndindam, Frisbee Kathleen L, Lipschitz Jessica M, Richardson Eric, Irvin Dawn, Hogan Timothy P
eHealth Partnered Evaluation Initiative, VA Bedford Healthcare System, Bedford, MA, United States.
Research and Development Service, Dallas VA Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States.
JMIR Form Res. 2025 Aug 7;9:e77113. doi: 10.2196/77113.
There is an increasingly diverse range of mobile apps and digital health devices available to help patients manage their health. Despite evidence for the effectiveness of such technologies, their potential has not been fully realized because adoption remains low. Such limited uptake can have direct implications for the intended benefits of these technologies.
This study aimed to understand what matters most to US military veterans when deciding whether to use digital health technologies (DHTs) such as mobile health apps or devices to manage their health and compare these factors between veterans with and without prevalent chronic physical and mental health conditions.
We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of survey data collected from a national sample of veterans who receive care from the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), which was predominantly gathered as part of the last wave of a larger longitudinal data collection effort.
Among respondents (n=857), 86.7% (736/849) reported currently using or having previously used ≥1 devices to manage their health, and 78.4% (639/815) also reported using either VHA or non-VHA health apps. Considerations most frequently endorsed as "very important" by veterans when deciding whether to use DHTs included receiving secure messages from their health care team about DHTs, knowing data from DHTs would be used to inform their care, and receiving recommendations from providers to use DHTs. Conversely, considerations most frequently endorsed as "not at all important" included seeing information about DHTs on social media, having community support to use DHTs, and receiving encouragement from peers to use DHTs. Considerations did not significantly differ between veterans with or without prevalent chronic health conditions; however, a greater proportion of veterans with prevalent mental health conditions reported the following considerations to be "very important:" seeing information about DHTs on social media, having community support to use DHTs, having other veterans encourage DHT use, and having help from family, friends, or other important people to use DHTs.
Understanding what matters most to patients when they are deciding to adopt a technology for their health can, and should, inform implementation strategies and other approaches to enhance health-related technology use. Our results suggest that, for veterans, recommendations from health care team members and knowing that the data from DHTs will be used in clinical care are more important than information from social media, community sources, or peers when deciding to use DHTs, although perceptions of importance regarding the latter may differ among patients with different conditions. Our findings suggest that communication from health care team members to patients, perhaps either in-person or electronically, could help encourage DHT adoption and use.
可用于帮助患者管理自身健康的移动应用程序和数字健康设备种类日益繁多。尽管有证据表明此类技术有效，但其潜力尚未得到充分发挥，因为采用率仍然很低。这种有限的采用率可能会直接影响这些技术预期带来的益处。
本研究旨在了解美国退伍军人在决定是否使用数字健康技术（如移动健康应用程序或设备）来管理自身健康时，最重要的因素是什么，并比较有和没有普遍存在的慢性身心健康问题的退伍军人之间的这些因素。
我们对从接受退伍军人健康管理局（VHA）护理的全国退伍军人样本中收集的调查数据进行了横断面分析，这些数据主要是作为一项更大规模纵向数据收集工作的最后一波的一部分收集的。
在受访者（n = 857）中，86.7%（736/849）报告目前正在使用或以前使用过≥1种设备来管理自身健康，78.4%（639/815）还报告使用过VHA或非VHA健康应用程序。退伍军人在决定是否使用数字健康技术时，最常被认可为“非常重要”的考虑因素包括从其医疗团队收到关于数字健康技术的安全信息、知道数字健康技术的数据将用于为其护理提供信息，以及收到提供者使用数字健康技术的建议。相反，最常被认可为“一点也不重要”的考虑因素包括在社交媒体上看到关于数字健康技术的信息、有社区支持使用数字健康技术，以及得到同伴鼓励使用数字健康技术。有或没有普遍存在的慢性健康问题的退伍军人之间的考虑因素没有显著差异；然而，有普遍心理健康问题的退伍军人中，更大比例的人报告以下考虑因素“非常重要”：在社交媒体上看到关于数字健康技术的信息、有社区支持使用数字健康技术、有其他退伍军人鼓励使用数字健康技术，以及得到家人、朋友或其他重要人物帮助使用数字健康技术。
了解患者在决定采用一种健康技术时最重要的因素能够且应该为实施策略和其他提高与健康相关技术使用的方法提供信息。我们的结果表明，对于退伍军人来说，在决定使用数字健康技术时，医疗团队成员的建议以及知道数字健康技术的数据将用于临床护理比来自社交媒体、社区来源或同伴的信息更重要，尽管对于后者的重要性认知在不同病情的患者中可能有所不同。我们的研究结果表明，医疗团队成员与患者之间通过面对面或电子方式进行沟通，可能有助于鼓励采用和使用数字健康技术。
