Citizens and personal health records - the case of Nelson Mandela Bay.
This paper explores citizen attitudes towards personal health records. The study was conducted in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. A cross-sectional design was used and structured questionnaires administered by data collectors. Most respondents (90%) believed it to be important to extremely important for their healthcare provider to have their complete medical records. Less than half of them (42%), however, believed that the healthcare provider did have their complete medical record available to them. Nevertheless, 69% do not keep a medical record as a way to address this concern. Most of them (84%) were not aware of the existence of electronic tools to capture a personal health record prior to participating in the survey. Concerns relating to the use of online PHRs were identified as privacy (58%), lack of time (27%) and a disinterest in computers (22%). It was found that the existence of a medical chronic condition is a strong predictor of keeping a medical record (albeit mostly in paper-based format).
School of ICT, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
Dalenca
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Pottas
Nicky
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Mostert-Phipps
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001292:Attitude to Computers; D003197:Computer Literacy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016494:Computer Security / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003219:Confidentiality; D005260:Female; D055991:Health Records, Personal; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011639:Public Opinion; D013019:South Africa; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult