Modeling consumer acceptance of electronic personal health records

The goal of this study is to build and empirically validate a theoretical model differentiating between consumer information-related and technology-related factors of adopting electronic personal health records (PHRs). Encouraging healthy people to monitor their own health, record data in online PHRs, and engage more in health self-management can help to improve their lives while saving health system costs by preventing rather than treating diseases. To elicit consumer views on PHRs and test the adoption model proposed, a cross-sectional theory-based survey was conducted with a panel of 383 Canadian individuals. Results demonstrate a valid model according to which technology-related perceptions are more important than information-related perceptions for PHR adoption. Overall, this study opens the door for further investigations of healthy consumer views on PHRs in order to understand the factors that would increase the adoption rate of this new artifact in health promotion with society-wide positive implications.