Evaluation of “Blue Book Application” for elderly in the Health Region 1, 2023

Abstract

The Department of Health has developed the Blue Book application to serve as a digital health record for the elderly. Users can record their medical history and health check-up results, creating a comprehensive health record accessible to the elderly, caregivers, and healthcare professionals.

            The goal of this study was to investigate usage patterns, effectiveness, and satisfaction of users of the Blue Book application in Health Region 1. A stratified random sampling recruited 726 participants, including the elderly, caregivers, and healthcare professionals.  An online questionnaire tested a validity ranged from 0.60 to 1.00 and an overall reliability possessed 0.90.  Analyses of data processed for descriptive statistics included frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation, as well as an analysis of variance. The significance level was set at 0.05.

The results showed that the majority of participants were female 88.43% with an average age of 59.50 years and attained a bachelor’s degree or diploma 49.31%. Most of participants learned how to do the application through healthcare professionals’ advices and used it once a month. Overall, participants reported high levels of satisfaction, effectiveness, and efficiency in using the Blue Book application. Regarding an efficiency of the application, majority of users including the elderly, care managers, public health officials, and local government officials reported moderate levels of satisfaction (3.28 ± 0.95, 3.25 ± 0.92, 3.23 ± 0.89 and 3.06 ± 0.92 respectively).  In terms of perceived effectiveness, the elderly, caregivers, care managers, and public health officials reported high levels (3.59 ± 0.77, 3.80 ± 0.84, 3.52 ± 0.83 and 3.50 ± 0.86 respectively).  For user satisfaction, the elderly, caregivers, and public health officials reported high levels (3.52 ± 0.91, 3.72 ± 0.84, and 3.44 ± 0.86, respectively). There were no significant differences in overall satisfaction, effectiveness, or efficiency among those groups.

The research findings reveal that the Blue Book application should be a definite need exists to grasp the development of all user groups. It will allow an effective utilization of data from the application to improve healthcare services, especially for the elderly population.