Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Date Submitted: Sep 5, 2019
Date Accepted: Feb 26, 2020
Persons living with HIV and their physicians: adopters, sceptics and those open to e-health
ABSTRACT
Background:
The-e-heath development, by the remote care provision it offers, can address new issues to patients and professionals favouring patient autonomy and compliance, and fostering closer links both between patients and healthcare professionals, and among healthcare professionals themselves.
Objective:
To analyse patterns of use, benefits and perceived obstacles in e-health among persons living with HIV (PLHIV) and their hospital physicians.
Methods:
Online multicentric observational survey conducted from 15 to 19 October 2018 in 51 medical units from France thanks to self-administered questionnaires collecting sociodemographic and medical data and perception of e-health. Multiple correspondence analysis followed by mixed unsupervised classification were performed to analyse data of 279 PLHIV and 219 physicians.
Results:
Three groups of PLHIV were identified: Group 1 “e-health believers” n = 121 (43%) more often aged over 60 (G1 40% G2 29%, G3 8%), and more likely to be receiving treatments other than antiretrovirals (G1 54% G2 47% G3 25%); Group 2 “technology sceptics” n = 86 (31%) more often women, more often with at least one child (G1 41%, G2 56%, G3 29%); Group 3 “internet adopters” n = 72 (26%) more often aged under 49 (G1 27% G2 30% G3 65%), more often MSM (G1 44%, G2 24% G3 64%), more likely to use mobile applications for wellness/health (G1 10%, G2 19%, G3 64%) and connected objects (G1 13% G2 13% G3 47%). Among physicians, three groups emerged: Group 1 “strongly confident in e-health” n = 95 (43%) more often using mobile applications for wellness/health (G1 43%, G2 23%; G3 39%), more likely to accept prescription assistance software (G1 72% G2 50% G3 61%); Group 2 “strongly opposed to e-health” n = 80 (37%), more often asserting that e-health challenges confidentiality (G1 27% G2 64% G3 39%); Group 3 “open to e-health” n = 44 (20%) more often infectiologists (G1 73% G2 63% G3 86%), more likely to believe that medical applications are useful for patient education and information (G1 87% G2 58% G3 91%). No link was found between the groups of PLHIV and physicians.
Conclusions:
World literature on e-health describes enthusiasts and sceptics, but a third profile appeared in both PLHIV and physicians, though without a direct link: PLHIV attentive to e-health for improving their health condition, and physicians who find it benefits patients and/or their own practice.
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