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“My Personal Doctor Will not Be Replaced with Any Robot Service!”: Older Adults’ Experiences with Personal Health Information and eHealth Services

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Information Experience and Information Literacy (ECIL 2023)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 2042))

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Abstract

The ways of preservations of personal health and medical information vary, from digital to paper-based approaches. This study examines older people’s experiences on eHealth services, including benefits. A postal survey was mailed to a random population sample of 1,500 individuals aged 55–70. A total of 373 (25%) responses were received. The mean age was 63.2 (SD 4.7) years of which 225 (60.6%) were women. This study focuses on the open-ended questions on personal health information management and views of eHealth services. Data were analyzed using content analysis. Older adults’ experiences and attitudes are divided. The best possible eHealth service would contain versatile health information and combine information from different healthcare sectors. It would be easy to use and up-to-date, but would also allow the possibility to contact a real human being, such as via video connection. The findings reflect capabilities needed for personal health information management, relating to health information literacy.

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Acknowledgements

This research was conducted as part of the project Taking Health Information Behaviour into Account: implications of a neglected element for successful implementation of consumer health technologies on older adults (HIBA), funded by the Academy of Finland 2015–2020. (Grant no. 287084).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Information Studies, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

    Heidi Enwald & Noora Hirvonen

  2. Information Studies, Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland

    Kristina Eriksson-Backa

  3. Department of ALM, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

    Isto Huvila

Authors
  1. Heidi Enwald
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  2. Kristina Eriksson-Backa
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  3. Noora Hirvonen
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  4. Isto Huvila
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Heidi Enwald .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Hacettepe University, Ankara, Türkiye

    Serap Kurbanoğlu

  2. University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

    Sonja Špiranec

  3. Université Gustav Eiffel, Paris, France

    Joumana Boustany

  4. Hacettepe University, Ankara, Türkiye

    Yurdagül Ünal

  5. Hacettepe University, Ankara, Türkiye

    İpek Şencan

  6. University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

    Denis Kos

  7. University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Esther Grassian

  8. University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Diane Mizrachi

  9. The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

    Loriene Roy

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Enwald, H., Eriksson-Backa, K., Hirvonen, N., Huvila, I. (2024). “My Personal Doctor Will not Be Replaced with Any Robot Service!”: Older Adults’ Experiences with Personal Health Information and eHealth Services. In: Kurbanoğlu, S., et al. Information Experience and Information Literacy. ECIL 2023. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 2042. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-53001-2_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-53001-2_13

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