Utility and usability evaluation of an information diary tool to measure health information access and exposure among patients with high cardiovascular risk

BackgroundOnline health misinformation about statins potentially affects health decision-making on statin use and adherence. We developed an information diary platform (IDP) to measure topic-specific health information exposure where participants record what information they encounter. We evaluated the utility and usability of the smartphone diary from the participants' perspective. MethodsWe used a mixed-method design to evaluate how participants used the smartphone diary tool and their perspectives on usability. Participants were high cardiovascular-risk patients recruited from a primary care clinic and used the tool for a week. We measured usability with the System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire and interviewed participants to explore utility and usability issues. ResultsThe information diary was available in three languages and tested with 24 participants. The mean SUS score was 69.8 +/- 12.9. Five themes related to utility were: IDP functions as a health information diary; supporting discussion of health information with doctors; wanting a feedback function about credible information; increasing awareness of the need to appraise information; and wanting to compare levels of trust with other participants or experts. Four themes related to usability were: ease of learning and use; confusion about selecting the category of information source; capturing offline information by uploading photos; and recording their level of trust. ConclusionWe found that the smartphone diary can be used as a research instrument to record relevant examples of information exposure. It potentially modifies how people seek and appraise topic-specific health information.