Previously submitted to: JMIR mHealth and uHealth (no longer under consideration since Dec 07, 2021)
Date Submitted: Nov 29, 2021
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited.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.
A(pp)ceptance: Increasing physicians’ acceptance for chronic pain apps
ABSTRACT
Background:
Chronic pain is one of the most costly and widespread medical conditions in the world. Despite effective forms of treatment, there is an urgent need to optimize therapies. Studies on the effectiveness of health apps for chronic pain patients are increasing and show promising results as a treatment adjunct or stand-alone treatment. Nevertheless, physicians’ acceptance of electronic health interventions has been somewhat reluctant, resulting in low prescription rates of health apps.
Objective:
The aim of our study was to determine and enhance physicians’ acceptance, performance expectancy and credibility of health apps for chronic pain patients. We further investigated predictors of acceptance.
Methods:
In a repeated measures design, 248 physicians were randomly assigned to either an experimental group (short educational video about health apps) or a control group (short video about chronic pain). Primary outcome measure was acceptance. Performance expectancy and the credibility of health apps were secondary outcomes. In addition, we assessed 101 medical students to evaluate the effectiveness of the video intervention in young professionals.
Results:
In general, physicians' acceptance of health apps for chronic pain patients was moderate (M=9.51, SD=3.53, scale ranges from 3-15). All primary and secondary outcomes were enhanced by the video intervention: A repeated-measures ANOVA yielded a significant interaction effect for acceptance (F(1, 246)=15.28, P=.01), performance expectancy (F(1, 246)=6.10, P=.01) and credibility (F(1, 246)=25.61, P<.001). The same pattern of results was evident among medical students. Linear regression analysis revealed credibility (β=.34, P<.001) and performance expectancy (β .30, P<.001) as the two strongest factors influencing acceptance, followed by skepticism (β=-.18, P<.001) and intuitive appeal (β=.11, P=.03).
Conclusions:
Physicians’ acceptance of health apps was moderate, and was strengthened by a three minutes video. Besides performance expectancy, credibility seems to be a promising factor associated with acceptance. Future research should focus on ways to implement acceptability-increasing interventions into routine care. Clinical Trial: Open Science Framework: https://osf.io/x693r Registration DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/X693R
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