Authors (including presenting author) :
Lai SY(1), Tam Denise YS(1), Kwong Alfred SK(1)
Affiliation :
(1)Family Medicine and Primary Health Care, HKWC
Introduction :
In recent era, electronic and online resources become more popular. (1) It is easy for patients to obtain health information by different channels. It is important to understand patients’ preferences for health information and access points. Effective channels to promote health information can enhance patients' knowledge to their own health, improve lifestyle modification, and patients' satisfaction to consultation due to limited consultation time in clinic setting in Hong Kong.
Objectives :
(1)To explore patients’ perceived need when attending a clinic setting in terms of health education
(2)To determine the most preferred way to receive health information.
Methodology :
This study was a cross-sectional survey in a public general out-patient clinic in Hong Kong. Patients attending our clinic were randomly approached for recruitment. Participants were asked to fill in basic demographic information and a questionnaire. Since this was a pilot study, we did not have a preset sample size. We have collected 100 questionnaires. Analysis of the data was done using Excel and/or IPSS.
Result & Outcome :
Online resources and individual face to face counseling with other health care professionals are patients’ most preferred channels for receiving health education besides doctor consultation in a clinic setting.
More than half of elderly patients would use online resources for health information in clinic setting.
For the most preferred channel for receiving health education in elderly group with age 60 or above , online resources was the second preferred channel to receive health information. This reflects online resources not only welcomed by younger patients and relatives as we expected, but also elderly would like to assess the online resources.
Conclusions:
There is lack of local data about patients preferred channels to receive health information in clinic setting. This research fills this gap and provides more data for clinics in our local population to choose effective channels for patient education.
