Currently submitted to: JMIR Human Factors
Date Submitted: Jul 20, 2026
Open Peer Review Period: Jul 21, 2026 - Sep 15, 2026
(currently open for review)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Attitudes Towards Digital Health Technology in Neurological Conditions: A Qualitative Study of Patients, Carers, and Healthcare Professionals
ABSTRACT
Background:
Digital health technology is increasingly applied across neurological conditions and is now widely accessible from both individual and formal healthcare perspectives. Nevertheless, comprehensive evidence on attitudes towards digital health technology in this population remains limited.
Objective:
This study aimed to investigate attitudes towards digital health technology from the perspectives of people living with neurological conditions, carers, and healthcare professionals.
Methods:
An in-depth qualitative design was employed, using semi-structured interviews with 35 participants (15 people with neurological conditions, 13 carers, 7 healthcare professionals) across multiple neurological conditions. Inductive thematic analysis, guided by a realist approach, was applied separately to each participant group.
Results:
Five themes emerged across all three groups: (1) openness to use; (2) digital literacy, experience, and ability to use; (3) hesitancy, uncertainty, and perception of benefit; (4) user age and access to technology; and (5) continued need for access to healthcare professionals. Participants were generally open to digital health technology but reported important caveats, including variable digital literacy, uncertainty about what to use and how, disappointment from previous failed attempts to use digital health technology, concerns about age-related access, and persistent preference for in-person clinical contact. Additionally, neurological symptoms were identified as a potential barrier to technology use, and a lack of awareness of available digital health tools was a consistent finding across all three groups.
Conclusions:
Most participants were open to the uptake and use of digital health technology. Attitudes around personal uncertainty, perception of benefit and a desire for continued access to healthcare professionals were combined with practical and structural factors, including digital literacy, equitable access, and usability. Developers and clinicians should prioritise co-designing simple, evidence-based digital tools that deliver tangible benefits whilst maintaining pathways for in-person care. Consideration should also be given to the potential impact of neurological symptoms on technology use and the need for proactive promotion of available tools to improve awareness amongst people with neurological conditions, carers, and healthcare professionals.
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Copyright
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