Development and validation of the Digital Health Acceptability Questionnaire

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Digital Health
• Patient Experience

Background:

• The acceptability of healthcare services is crucial but lacks a standardized definition in research.
• A systematic review established the Theoretical Framework of Acceptability to address this gap.
• This study aimed to develop and validate a questionnaire based on this framework for digital health.

Approach:

• Developed 19 items based on the Theoretical Framework of Acceptability.
• Administered two versions (telephone and videoconference) to a large, nationally representative Australian sample.
• Conducted exploratory factor analyses to determine the questionnaire's structure and validity.

Key Points:

• A 2-dimensional, 10-item Digital Health Acceptability Questionnaire was validated for both telephone and videoconference telehealth.
• The questionnaire assesses users' attitudes towards telehealth and their perceived capacity and effort required.
• Both versions demonstrated excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha > 0.90).

Conclusions:

• The Digital Health Acceptability Questionnaire provides a brief, reliable, and valid measure of telehealth acceptability.
• This validated tool can be used to consistently assess patient perceptions of digital health interventions.
• Findings support the use of this questionnaire in research and practice to understand and improve digital health service adoption.