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Background: The advent of digital healthcare services has become paramount in the world we live in today. Digital healthcare involves the use of information and communication technologies in addressing the medical problems and health-related challenges faced by people seeking medical treatment. This study assesses the impact of digital healthcare among technologically literate people in Southwestern Nigeria (SWN) and seeks to understand its accessibility and acceptability among them. Methods: The study was a cross-sectional study. Our study data was obtained through an online questionnaire survey of 427 individuals (aged ≥15 years) living in SWN. The data were analyzed using the SPSS version 25 software. Results: The study found that roughly half of the respondents (52.0%) have heard about digital healthcare while only 44.0% have accessed it. Over seven-tenth (76.3%) of the respondents considered digital healthcare to be an acceptable form of receiving healthcare while 64.4% were willing to pay for it. Age (X2=7.702, p-value = 0.021), occupation (X2=20.685, p-value = 0.004) and awareness about digital healthcare (X2=55.507, p-value = 0.001) were significantly associated with accessibility of digital healthcare. Conclusion: The findings obtained from this study showed that awareness of digital healthcare was high among people in SWN; however, its accessibility was low. Also, digital healthcare was highly acceptable amongst them and they were willing to pay for such service.
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Background: The advent of digital healthcare services has become paramount in the world we live in today. Digital healthcare involves the use of information and communication technologies in addressing the medical problems and health-related challenges faced by people seeking medical treatment. This study assesses the impact of digital healthcare among technologically literate people in Southwestern Nigeria (SWN) and seeks to understand its accessibility and acceptability among them. Methods: The study was a cross-sectional study. Our study data was obtained through an online questionnaire survey of 427 individuals (aged ≥15 years) living in SWN. The data were analyzed using the SPSS version 25 software. Results: The study found that roughly half of the respondents (52.0%) have heard about digital healthcare while only 44.0% have accessed it. Over seven-tenth (76.3%) of the respondents considered digital healthcare to be an acceptable form of receiving healthcare while 64.4% were willing to pay for it. Age (X2=7.702, p-value = 0.021), occupation (X2=20.685, p-value = 0.004) and awareness about digital healthcare (X2=55.507, p-value = 0.001) were significantly associated with accessibility of digital healthcare. Conclusion: The findings obtained from this study showed that awareness of digital healthcare was high among people in SWN; however, its accessibility was low. Also, digital healthcare was highly acceptable amongst them and they were willing to pay for such service.

Accessibility and Acceptability of Digital Healthcare Services among People Living in Southwestern Nigeria

Department of International Healthcare Management

Annals of Public Health Issues

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Background: The advent of digital healthcare services has become paramount in the world we live in today. Digital healthcare involves the use of information...

Accessibility and Acceptability of Digital Healthcare Services among People Living in Southwestern Nigeria

Published Online: Sep 20, 2021

Page range: 12 - 24

Received: Mar 09, 2021

Accepted: Jun 29, 2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/aphi-2021-0003

Keywords
Digital health, healthcare, acceptability, access, utilization, Nigeria

© 2021 Emeka Benjamin Okeke et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Accessibility and Acceptability of Digital Healthcare Services among People Living in Southwestern Nigeria

Published Online: Sep 20, 2021

Page range: 12 - 24

Received: Mar 09, 2021

Accepted: Jun 29, 2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/aphi-2021-0003

KeywordsDigital health, healthcare, acceptability, access, utilization, Nigeria

© 2021 Emeka Benjamin Okeke et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
Digital health, healthcare, acceptability, access, utilization, Nigeria