title: Reproductive health professionals' adoption of emerging technologies for health promotion.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to assess reproductive health professionals' familiarity with and use of various electronic technologies to support health promotion. The study also examined the relationship between demographic characteristics and attitudes and beliefs of the effectiveness of new technologies and perceived barriers for usage. A total of 165 reproductive health professionals at two conferences related to reproductive health in the United States completed the study survey. Personal and organizational factors affected the adoption of electronic technologies for health promotion. This included lack of knowledge, skills, and confidence as well as privacy concerns. The results of the study also suggested that being from an older generation was associated with having lower levels of knowledge, skills, and confidence in using new media. These findings highlight the importance of creating learning opportunities on the use of new technology for health promotion as well as addressing specific perceived barriers among reproductive health professionals in order to promote the adoption of these technologies.
authors.affiliation: Baylor College of Medicine, USA.
authors.forename: Peggy B
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Baylor College of Medicine, USA rbuzi@bcm.edu.
authors.forename: Ruth S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Buzi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000193:education*; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends; D008297:Male; D008490:Medical Informatics / Q000193:education*; D008875:Middle Aged; D060728:Reproductive Health / Q000193:education*; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Consumer health information; IT; ehealth; health information on the Web; health-care professional training; health-care service innovation