Three years of digital consumer health information: a longitudinal study of the touch screen health kiosk

Abstract

Touch screen kiosks have become a popular way of delivering health information and much of the associated user activity is automatically and routinely recorded in electronic log files. These are a significant source of understanding consumer information seeking behaviour. However, there has been no evaluation in the literature of the long-term use of kiosks. This paper seeks to fill the gap in our knowledge and examines the use of a sample of 20 kiosks over three and half years. Identifies four patterns of use over time, a declining pattern, a stable pattern an increasing pattern and a no trend pattern and discusses the implications of these patterns. For 75% of the patterns reported there is an initial strong take up in use, often more than a doubling in use, in the first four to five months after a kiosk is installed this is followed by a just as rapid decline in use. The research found differences use between age groups with patients aged 15 and above being more likely to be responsible for the initial strong surge in use. The research reported here forms part of a Department of Health (DoH) funded study which is evaluating the use and impact of more than fifty heath kiosks located in all kinds of locations throughout the United Kingdom.