Design simplicity influences patient portal use: the role of aesthetic evaluations for technology acceptance

Objective This study focused on patient portal use and investigated whether aesthetic evaluations of patient portals function are antecedent variables to variables in the Technology Acceptance Model

“You may have a cancer-causing virus and not even know it” Fear appeals in online news

Most explanations of health risks are presented as “fear appeals,” messages that attempt to arouse fear to modify personal behavior. The central goal of this research is to assess fear appeal performance in online news while examining several research-design issues. Looking at digital news content as fear appeals will expand the scope of research into a new area, and more effective measurement and induction will avoid some common pitfalls. An online experiment produced data indicating that perceived threat and efficacy relationships developed as expected in online news and that improvements in research-design artifacts strongly affect observed variable relationships. Fear appeal and efficacy messages included in digital media content seem to be effective means to altering individual behavioral intentions

Fatherhood during COVID-19: fathers' perspectives on pregnancy and prenatal care

Background and objective: In early 2020, the novel COVID-19 virus arrived in the United States and resulted in broad, sweeping changes to safety procedures within healthcare settings, including prenatal care settings. While implemented to protect both providers and patients, this protocol limited fathers’ ability to attend prenatal care appointments. At this time, limited research has been published on the effects of COVID-19 healthcare protocols on fathers’ experiences and perceptions of prenatal care and parenting. This study aimed to understand how COVID-19 affected expectant fathers and fathers with newborns perceptions and experiences during pregnancy, prenatal care, and early parenting. Materials and methods: Structured interviews were completed with fathers expecting a child and fathers with children born after March 2020. Interviews were completed by video conference and recorded. Audio from each interview was transcribed. Content and thematic analysis was performed. Results: In total, 34 fathers were interviewed. Three broad themes were identified from the data including changing prenatal care policies that did not consider fathers, unique stressors associated with COVID-19, and isolation’s negative impact on connecting to the pregnancy and support. Fathers reported limited engagement with the prenatal care system due to pandemic-related organizational and systematic changes in healthcare delivery. Results also suggest that fathers experienced elevated feelings of both stress and isolation from the pregnancy and prenatal care. Conclusions: Ultimately, this study highlights the need for providers and organizations to develop strategies for transforming prenatal healthcare delivery into inclusive, family centered care during emergency situations, as well as use this opportunity to build family centered care into normal prenatal care operations

Design simplicity influences patient portal use: the role of aesthetic evaluations for technology acceptance

Objective This study focused on patient portal use and investigated whether aesthetic evaluations of patient portals function are antecedent variables to variables in the Technology Acceptance Model. Methods A cross-sectional survey of current patient portals users (N = 333) was conducted online. Participants completed the Visual Aesthetics of Website Inventory, along with items measuring perceived ease of use (PEU), perceived usefulness (PU), and behavioral intentions (BIs) to use the patient portal. Results The hypothesized model accounted for 29% of the variance in BIs to use the portal, 46% of the variance in the PU of the portal, and 29% of the variance in the portal’s PEU. Additionally, one dimension of the aesthetic evaluations functions as a predictor in the model – simplicity evaluations had a significant positive effect on PEU. Conclusion This study provides evidence that aesthetic evaluations – specifically regarding simplicity – function as a significant antecedent variable to patients’ use of patient portals and should influence patient portal design strategies