LAUSR

Background: Nowadays, many health information technology (HIT) interventions are developed for self-care management of chronic diseases. Application of these interventions requires patients’ readiness to use HIT. The current study aimed at determining the readiness of patients with chronic diseases referring to the clinics of educational hospitals in Khorramabad, Iran, to use HIT. Methods: The current cross sectional study was conducted on patients with chronic diseases referring to the clinics of teaching hospitals in Khoramabad, Iran, in 2016. A sample of 475 patients with chronic diseases was selected by the convenience sampling method. Data were collected using the valid and reliable PRE-HIT (patient readiness to engage in health information technology) questionnaire. This questionnaire is composed of two sections, sociodemographic characteristics and patient readiness factors including health information need, computer/internet experience, computer anxiety, preferred mode of interaction, relationship with doctor, cell-phone expertise, internet privacy concerns, and health news on a four-point Likert-scale. Data were analyzed with SPSS version 20. Results: The results showed that 24.4% (n = 100) of the participants had the experience of using computers. Participants’ experience of computer application had a significant relationship with their age, marital status, job, educational level, living place, health status, and disease type (P = 0.001), but it had no significant relationship with their gender. The readiness of patients with chronic diseases and the experience of computer application was at a medium level (mean ± standard deviation (SD) = 2.77 ± 0.59). The highest and lowest scores of readiness were related to the relationship with doctors (mean ± SD = 3.37 ± 0.52) and computer anxiety factors (mean ± SD = 2.30 ± 0.60), respectively. Conclusions: The results of the current study showed that patients’ readiness to engage in HIT was at a medium level. Hence, any plans to use computers and improve readiness of patients with chronic diseases to use HIT can eliminate the challenges of accepting IT by the patients. These can also change patients’ lifestyle and improve self-care management of chronic diseases.