Factors affecting the acceptance of integrated electronic personal health records in Saudi Arabia: The impact of e-health literacy.

BACKGROUND: National implementation of electronic personal health record (ePHR) systems is of vital importance to governments worldwide because this type of technology promises to promote and enhance healthcare. Although there is widespread agreement as to the advantages of ePHRs, the level of awareness and acceptance of this technology among healthcare consumers has been low. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to identify the factors that can influence the acceptance and use of an integrated ePHR system in Saudi Arabia. METHOD: The unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model was extended in this study to include e-health literacy (e-HL) and tested using structural equation modelling. Data were collected via a questionnaire survey, resulting in 794 valid responses. RESULTS: The proposed model explained 56% of the variance in behavioural intention (BI) to use the integrated ePHR system. Findings also highlighted the significance of performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence (SI) and e-HL as determinants of Saudi healthcare consumers' intentions to accept and use the integrated ePHR system. Additionally, assessment of the research model moderators revealed that only gender had a moderating influence on the relationship between SI and BI. Finally, findings showed a low level of awareness among Saudi citizens about the national implementation of an integrated ePHR system, suggesting the need to promote a greater and more widespread awareness of the system and to demonstrate its usefulness. CONCLUSION: Findings from this study can assist governments, policymakers and developers of health information technologies and systems by identifying important factors that may influence the diffusion and use of integrated ePHRs.

Dental Care in the Arab Countries During the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Infodemiological Study.

BACKGROUND: Twitter is a powerful platform which could be used to reflect on the demand and supply of dental services during a pandemic. The aim of this study was to examine the nature and dissemination of COVID-19 information related to dentistry on Twitter platform Arabic database during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODOLOGY: One hundred and fifty independent searches with a combination of keywords for both COVID-19 and dentistry from a preselected Arabic keyword were carried out for the period from the 2nd of March (first confirmed cases of COVID-19) to the 6th of July 2020. Tweets were filtered to remove duplicate and unrelated tweets. The suitable tweets were 1,150. After calibration, two examiners coded the tweets following two main themes: COVID-19 and oral health-related information. Tweets were then compared with COVID-19 daily events in the Arab countries as reported by the World Health Organization (WHO). Descriptive analysis was performed to present the overview of the findings using Microsoft Excel. RESULTS: The most retweeted information was the help with urgent consultation or emergency dental treatment during COVID-19 tweeted by a dentist. There were 673 retweets and 1,116 likes of this tweet. The most common tweets related to oral health were needs of dental treatment (n=462, 39.5%) of which, toothaches or wisdom tooth problems constituted 48% of the related tweets. CONCLUSION: Based on the results of this study, it is obvious that social media users reacted to the COVID-19 threat to dental practices. Twitter as one of the social media platforms served as a connection between dental health professionals and patients.

Undergraduate Dental Students' Acceptance of Treatment by Dental Student Peers: A Cross-Sectional Study.

OBJECTIVE: To enumerate students who accepted/would accept treatment by dental student peers (DSP), describe characteristics of DSP and explore factors associated with determining DSP treatment. METHODS: A 17-item online survey was distributed to students of all levels (383) at Taibah University Dental College and Hospital during the academic year 2019-2020. The survey comprised three sections: section one asked questions about the students' demographics and socioeconomics (family income), section two focused on the acceptance of treatment by DSP, characteristics of DSP, and section three asked about factors influencing acceptance of treatment by DSP. The collected data underwent descriptive, bivariate and logistic regression analyses. RESULTS: Of 383 students, 222 (58%) completed the survey; 72 (32%) were at an intern level and 150 (68%) at other levels. Those who had accepted/would accept treatment by DSP comprised 88% of respondents. Performance (85.4%) and quality of treatment (85.5%) were important characteristics of DSP. The multivariable analysis revealed that increase in score rates of confidence in DSP was significantly associated with acceptance of treatment, odds ratio (OR)=1.89, 95% CI: (1.48-2.43), p<0.001. Similarly, students who had a better understanding of patients' management were more likely to accept treatment by DSP (OR=2.70, 95% CI: 1.05-6.96, p=0.039). CONCLUSION: A high percentage of students had accepted/would accept treatment by DSP. These findings also suggest that students who have confidence in DSP and those who understand patient management would accept oral health care by DSP.