Acceptance of Internet-Based Health Care Services Among Households in Poland: Secondary Analysis of a Population-Based Survey

BACKGROUND: Polish society is benefiting from growing access to the Internet, but the use of advanced e-services is still limited. The provision of Internet-based health services depends not only on the penetration of the Internet into society, but also on the acceptance of this technology by potential users. OBJECTIVE: The main objective of this study was focused on the assessment of predictors of acceptance of Internet use for provision of health services (eg, sociodemographic status, the use of information technologies, and consumption of health care services) among households in Poland. METHODS: The study was based on a secondary analysis of the dataset from the 2011 Social Diagnosis survey (a biannual survey conducted since 2001 about economic and non-economic aspects of household and individual living conditions in Poland). Analysis of the questionnaire results focused on the situations of the households included in the study. The predictors for 2 outcome variables describing the acceptance of households for Internet use for provision of a full health care service, or at least access to information and download of required forms, were assessed using multivariate logistic regression. RESULTS: After excluding those households that would not consider the use of health care services or for which predictor variables assumed missing values, the final analyses were conducted on data from 8915 households. Acceptance of the use of the Internet for provision of full health care services in Polish households was significantly higher among households in urban locations with ≥ 200,000 inhabitants than among households in rural areas; it was also higher with salaried employment as the source of income than with self-employment in agriculture (odds ratio [OR] = 0.53, 95% CI 0.40 - 0.70), retirement pension (OR = 0.46, 95% CI 0.39 - 0.54), disability pension (OR = 0.48, 95% CI 0.34 - 0.68), or with several simultaneous income sources (OR = 0.66; 95% CI 0.57 - 0.79). Furthermore, acceptance of Internet-based health care was higher in households with a higher monthly net income per capita (OR = 2.11, 95% CI 1.75 - 2.53 for households from the lowest and the highest income interval), among households with > 1 child aged < 15 years (OR = 1.38, 95% CI 1.20 - 1.59), among households with at least some books (with OR = 3.33, 95% CI 2.39 - 4.64 for household with no books and those with over 500 books). Acceptance was also higher in households with a computer (OR = 1.86, 95% CI 1.35 - 2.56), Internet access (OR = 1.95, 95% CI 1.37 - 2.76), and Internet access for a longer duration (OR = 1.36, 95% CI 1.06 - 1.75 and OR = 1.81, 95% CI 1.40 - 2.33 for households with access < 1 year versus those with access for 1-5 years and > 5 years, respectively). Greater self-declared confidence in using technology was also associated with higher acceptance of the Internet for health care services (OR = 2.94, 95% CI 2.21 - 3.91 for the least confident households versus those with the highest confidence). Furthermore, recent use of health care services increased acceptance of using the Internet for at least some health-related services (OR = 1.49, 95% CI 1.16 - 1.91), but not for full provision of online health care services (OR = 1.20, 95% CI 0.92 - 1.55). Neither the hospitalization of a member of a household nor the opinion about satisfying health care needs of a household affected the degree of acceptance. CONCLUSIONS: The acceptance of health care services through the Internet is higher in households from larger cities, with stable income from an employee salary, as well as with higher income levels per capita. Furthermore, general computer and Internet use in the household influenced the perception of eHealth. Paradoxically, the use of health care services or the level of satisfaction with the coverage of the household’s health needs has a limited influence on acceptance of Internet-based health care services.