Automated personal health inventory for dentistry: a pilot study

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Patient Data Management
• Digital Health Records

Background:

• Investigating the feasibility of patients entering health histories (HHs) directly into computers for transfer to electronic health records.
• Examining patient acceptance of a pen-based computerized HH questionnaire.
• Assessing if computer use improves forthrightness on sensitive questions compared to paper.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine patient acceptability of computerized health history questionnaires.
• To compare the accuracy and reliability of sensitive question responses between computerized and paper-based formats.
• To evaluate the efficiency and data quality of computerized health history collection.

Main Methods:

• Fifty subjects completed two similar 78-item HH questionnaires: one pen-based computerized, one paper.
• Questionnaire order was counterbalanced (computerized first or paper first).
• Subjects completed an opinion survey on their experience with the computer questionnaire.

Main Results:

• 73% of subjects preferred the pen-based computer questionnaire over the paper version for future HH completion.
• Overall reliability of answers between the two formats was high at 93%.
• An average of 5.4 inconsistent answers were noted between the two questionnaire versions per subject.

Conclusions:

• Computerized health histories (HHs) are feasible, efficient, and reliable for patient data collection.
• Digital data capture offers improved legibility, completeness, and efficiency compared to paper HHs.
• Oral health professionals should review patient-provided HH data, irrespective of the collection method.