Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of E-health among Health Care Providers in Kuwa

Background: The nature and functions of e-health services are expanding rapidly and have the potential of not only improving health, but also to reduce health care costs, enhance scientific understanding of health issues, increase equity of health care, and improve communication between health care providers and patients.

Objectives: The aim of the present study is to highlight e-health knowledge, attitude and practice among health care providers in Kuwait.

Methods: This study was carried out in the 6 general hospitals during 2015 - 2016. 438 health care workers who agreed to participate in the study were asked to fill a predesigned questionnaire that included information regarding socio-demographic characteristics, computer and internet experience as well as knowledge, attitude and practice regarding e-health.

Results: 99.5% of health care participants are users of the internet, 98.2% of them used it for seeking health information. Their e-health attitude percentage score (68.8 ± 10.7) was higher than both knowledge (58.9 ± 24.2) and practice (59.2 ± 20.3) scores.

Conclusion: There is a gap between participants’ attitude which was generally positive on one side and their knowledge and practice of e-health that were generally moderate on the other side.