Interview Schedule and Data Collection

After reviewing the article Consumer Informatics: Elderly Persons and the Internet (Campbell, 2005), I developed a set of interview questions addressing information presented in the tables 2 and 3 of the article. These questions were presented to 10 consumers, ranging in the ages of 26-64, a total of five female and five male participants. One female was 26 years old, two females and three males were 31-39 years, one male was 48 years old, two females were 54 & 57 years old, and one male was 64 years old. I presented this information to the subjects requesting their voluntary participation to gain more knowledge on their use of technology and accessing the internet as a healthcare consumer to improve the quality of their care.

I developed several questions similar to the Campbell study. The initial questions helped gain a general understanding of the participants such as gender, employment status, and education level and the remainder of the questions allowed me to collect data and formulate a better understanding of how access to the internet impacts consumers in searching for health-related information.

The results of the interview questions are presented below:

Participants	5 Female (50%)	5 Male (50%)
Employment Status	Total	Female	Male
Homemaker	1 (10%)	1 (10%)	0
Retired	1 (10%)	1 (10%)	0
Employed full-time	8 (80%)	3 (30%)	5 (50%)
Education Level
High school diploma	3 (30%)	1 (10%)	2 (20%)
Some college or technical training	5 (50%)	3 (30%)	2 (20%)
College degree	1 (10%)	1 (10%)	0
Postgraduate training	1 (10%)	0	1 (10%)
Devices Do You Own (select all that apply)
Desktop Computer	7 (70%)	4 (30%)	3 (30%)
Laptop	5 (50%)	2 (20%)	3 (30%)
iPad/Tablet	6 (60%)	4 (40%)	2 (20%)
Smartphone	8 (80%)	4 (40%)	4 (40%)
Smart Watch	0	0	0
Alexa or Google Home	3 (30%)	1 (10%)	2 (20%)

Internet access	Total	Female	Male
Multiple times a day	6 (60%)	3 (30%)	3 (30%)
Multiple times per week	2 (20%)	2 (20%)	0
Multiple times per month	1 (10%)	0	1
Less than once per month	1 (10%)	0	1
Searching the internet for health information
Frequently	3 (30%)	2	1
Sometimes	3 (30%)	3	0
Rarely	4 (40%)	0	4
Never	0	0	0
Seen a healthcare provider in last 6 mos.
Yes	8 (80%)	5	3
No	2 (20%)	0	2
Search Internet for questions to ask Dr prior to last visit
Yes	3 (30%)	2	1
No	7 (70%)	3	4

Number of questions asked at last visit	Total	Female	Male
One	2 (20%)	2	0
Two-Three	2 (20%)	1	1
Four-Five	0	0	0
Six+	1 (10%)	1	0
Unsure	5 (50%)	1	4
Active participation in last visit
Doctor made all the decisions	5 (50%)	3	2
I made some decisions & asked doctor for opinions	2 (20%)	1	1
We worked together collaboratively on making decisions	1 (10%)	1	0
Other/Unsure	2 (20%)	0	2
Search Internet for information after visit
Yes	5 (50%)	4	1
No	5 (50%)	1	4
Can Internet help find health info without contacting healthcare provider?
Yes	7 (70%)	4	3
No	0	0	0
Unsure	3 (30%)	1	2
If info is accurate, how do you prefer to receive information
Healthcare provider	6 (60%)	3	3
Internet	0	0	0
Both	4 (40%)	2	2

These questions brought some valuable insight as to how consumers gather health-related information. As it was not asked in the Campbell study, I asked my participants about which devices they owned because consumers who are more technologically inclined would be more likely to frequent the internet. These results showed that only 30% searched for questions prior to their last doctor’s visit, 40% asked three questions or less (although 50% were unsure how many questions they asked), and 50% stated the doctor made all the decisions during their visit. After their visit, 50% searched the internet for information after their visit. This data shows that these consumers are not getting the proper quality care during their visits with their doctor; not enough information is being exchanged between consumer and healthcare provider(s). Furthermore, 60% would still prefer to receive their health information from their provider. These individuals need to be engaged in order to improve their healthcare outcomes. As stated in the Campbell article, “Studies have shown that patients who ask questions, elicit treatment options, express opinions, and state their preferences regarding treatment during office visits with their physicians have measurably better health outcomes than those who do not communicate” (2005, p. 5).

Analysis of Questions

What is your gender?

The ten consumers consisted of five males and five females.

What is your employment status?

Most of the consumers (80%) worked full-time. There was one homemaker and one who is retired.

What is your level of education?

Half (50%) of the consumers had some college or technical training. Three (30%) consumers had a high school diploma, one (10%) had a college degree, and one (10%) had postgraduate training.

What devices do you own? (select all that apply)

Most of the consumers had a smartphone. Half of the consumers had a laptop and 70% had a desktop computer. 60% had a iPad or tablet and only 30% had an Alexa or Google home device.

How often do you access the internet? (choose which best fits)

The majority of the consumers (60%) accessed the internet multiple times per day. The rest of the participants only accessed the internet weekly, monthly, or less than once per month.

How often do you search the internet for health information?

The 10 participants were evenly distributed amongst this question, 3 chose frequently, 3 chose sometimes, and 4 chose rarely. No participants said never.

Have you seen a healthcare provider in the last six months?

Eight participants (80%) have seen a provider and two (20%) have not.

Did you search the Internet for questions to ask the doctor prior to your last visit?

Three participants did search for questions and seven did not.

What is the number of questions you asked at your last visit?

40% of the consumers asked three questions or less. Only one participant asked 6+ questions. 50% of the participants stated they were unsure how many questions they asked.

How active was your participation in your last visit?

Half of the consumers (50%) stated the doctor made all the decisions during their last visit. 20% stated they made some decisions and asked for opinions, only one consumer stated they worked collaboratively with the doctor, and two consumers stated they were unsure how to respond.

Did you search the internet for health information after your visit?

Half of the consumers (50%) did search for health information after their visit and the other half did not.

Can the internet help you find health information without contacting a healthcare provider?

The majority (70%) agreed the internet can help you find health information; the other 30% stated they were unsure.

If you know the information is accurate, how do you prefer to get your information?

Six consumers (60%) stated they prefer to receive their information from their healthcare provider, four consumers (40%) stated they would like to receive it from bother the internet and their healthcare provider.

References

Campbell, R. (2005). Consumer Informatics: Elderly Persons and the Internet. Perspectives in Health Information Management, 2(2), 1-16. Retrieved January 5, 2018, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2047318/pdf/phim0002-0002.pdf.