JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Long-term illnesses and multimorbidity have become more common, thus reducing quality of life and increasing the demand for healthcare services. Lifestyle choices and socioeconomic status have a significant impact on the expected onset of diseases, age of death, and risk factors concerning long-term illnesses and morbidity. STAR is an online health examination tool which, based on questions about health, characteristics, lifestyle, and quality of life, gives users a report that includes an evaluation of their life expectancy and an estimated risk for developing common long-term illnesses.

Objective:

The goals of this study: 1. To review the capacity of STAR to recognize morbidity risks in comparison to a traditional nurse-led health examination and patient-reported health challenges; 2. To evaluate the user experience and usability of STAR; 3. To assess the potential impact of STAR on the health confidence and motivation of patients to make healthier lifestyle choices.

Methods:

This validation study will be conducted among 100 long-term unemployed persons attending a health check for the unemployed. The participants will be recruited from three Finnish public health centers in Espoo, Helsinki, and Tampere. At the health centers, the participants will use STAR and attend a nurse’s health check. Surveys with multiple-choice and open-ended questions will be collected from the participants, the nurse, and a study assistant. The questionnaires include questions about the participant’s background and health challenges from the individual’s and the nurse’s point of view, as well as questions about how well the health challenges matched the STAR report. The questionnaires also gather data about the user’s experience, usability, and the participants’ confidence in managing their health. A study assistant will fill an observer’s form containing questions about use time and possible problems encountered while using STAR. A sample of the unemployed participants will be interviewed by phone afterwards to collect more qualitative data. For the quantitative data, descriptive statistics and a reliability analysis will be performed, and mean sum scores will be computed for the study variables. Thematic analysis of the qualitative data will be performed. This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Expert Responsibility Area of Tampere University Hospital in June 2020. ETL Code R20067.

Results:

The data collection will begin at the start of 2021.

Conclusions:

Multi-method assessment of online health examinations can provide an understanding of how and for whom the tools may be effective and efficient. This study provides an understanding of the novel information provided by STAR, an online health examination, to the healthcare professional and the patient, the usability of the tool, and the potential of the tool to activate patients in the management of their own health.