AUTHOR=Lim Hooi Min , Ng Chirk Jenn , Abdullah Adina , Dalmazzo Jason , Lim Woei Xian , Lee Kah Hang , Dunn Adam G. 

TITLE=Utility and usability evaluation of an information diary tool to measure health information access and exposure among patients with high cardiovascular risk

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health

VOLUME=Volume 11 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1132397

DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2023.1132397

ISSN=2296-2565

ABSTRACT=Background: Online health misinformation about statins potentially affects health decision-making on statin use and adherence. We developed an information diary platform (IDP) to measure topic-specific health information exposure where participants record what information they encounter. We evaluated the utility and usability of the smartphone diary from the participants’ perspective.
Methods: We used a mixed-method design to evaluate how participants used the smartphone diary tool and their perspectives on usability. Participants were high cardiovascular-risk patients recruited from a primary care clinic and used the tool for a week. We measured usability with the System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire and interviewed participants to explore utility and usability issues.
Results: The information diary was available in three languages and tested with 24 participants. The mean SUS score was 69.8±12.9. Five themes related to utility were: IDP functions as a health information diary; supporting discussion of health information with doctors; wanting a feedback function about credible information; increasing awareness of the need to appraise information; and wanting to compare levels of trust with other participants or experts. Four themes related to usability were: ease of learning and use; confusion about selecting the category of information source; capturing offline information by uploading photos; and recording their level of trust.
Conclusion: We found that the smartphone diary can be used as a research instrument to record relevant examples of information exposure. It potentially modifies how people seek and appraise topic-specific health information.