title: Prevailing Opinions on Connected Health in Austria: Results from an Online Survey.
abstract: New technological developments affect almost every sector of our daily lives, including the healthcare sector. We evaluated how connected health applications, subsumed as eHealth and telemedicine, are perceived in relation to socio-demographic characteristics. The current cross-sectional, online survey collected self-reported data from a non-probability convenience sample of 562 Austrian adults (58.9% females). The concept of eHealth and telemedicine was poorly established among the study population. While most participants already used mobile devices, they expressed a quite low desirability of using various telemedicine applications in the future. Study participants perceived that the most important overall benefits for implementing connected health technology were better quality of healthcare, location-independent access to healthcare services, and better quality of life. The respective three top-ranked overall barriers were data security, lack of acceptance by doctors, and lack of technical prerequisites. With regard to aging societies, healthcare providers, and users alike could take advantage of inexpensive, consumer-oriented connected health solutions that address individual needs of specific target groups. The present survey identified issues relevant for successful implementation of ICT-based healthcare solutions, providing a compilation of several areas requiring further in-depth research.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Environmental Health, Center for Public Health, Medical University of Vienna, Kinderspitalgasse 15, Vienna A-1090, Austria. daniela.haluza@meduniwien.ac.at.
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Haluza
authors.affiliation: Institute of Environmental Health, Center for Public Health, Medical University of Vienna, Kinderspitalgasse 15, Vienna A-1090, Austria. marlene.naszay@aon.at.
authors.forename: Marlene
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Naszay
authors.affiliation: Institute of Environmental Health, Center for Public Health, Medical University of Vienna, Kinderspitalgasse 15, Vienna A-1090, Austria. astockinger@me.com.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stockinger
authors.affiliation: Institute of Environmental Health, Center for Public Health, Medical University of Vienna, Kinderspitalgasse 15, Vienna A-1090, Austria. davidjungwirth@gmx.at.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jungwirth
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001317:Austria; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D019981:Health Care Sector; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D011788:Quality of Life; D000068997:Smartphone; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Internet; digital divide; eHealth; health education; health information; medical informatics; telemedicine