Using the ipod touch for patient health behavior assessment and health promotion in primary care

Background: there is a growing recognition of the importance of lifestyle behavior change for health promotion and disease prevention,as well as the concomitant influence of patient-physician communication on effective behavior change. mobile technology is increasingly being recognized as an important and efficient tool to collect patients' health behavior data and facilitate patient-physician communication. objective: the aim of this study was to assess the feasibility of an ipod touch-based health behavior assessment (hba) tool in enhancing patient-physician collaborative goal-setting for health promotion in primary care. methods: a total of 109 patients from three primary care clinics in central texas completed a brief hba,which was programmed on an ipod touch device. an instant feedback report was generated for the patient and their physician simultaneously to facilitate collaborative goal-setting. within approximately 7 days of the hba,the patients were phoned for a follow-up survey for their feedback on the ipod touch-based hba and resultant patient-physician communication. results: patients were able to complete an hba on the ipod touch with ease. among those who completed the follow-up survey (n=83),30% (25/83) reported that their physicians discussed the hba report with them,while 29% (24/83) established behavior change goals with them. more than 90% (75/83) of the patients reported positive experiences with the ipod touch-based hba. conclusions: it is feasible to use mobile tools for hba in the primary care setting. the hba also facilitated patient-physician communication on behavior change. however,more research is needed on the effectiveness of large scale dissemination of mobile-based hba technology on health communication and behavior change for preventing or managing lifestyle-related chronic conditions,such as obesity,diabetes,cancer,or heart diseases. © holly o witteman.