Attitude of Inpatients about Information Technologies Literacy

Information Technologies (ITs) has become a significant resource for dissemination of information and resulted to increase of health knowledge in communities. This study was aimed to determine knowledge of inpatients about ITs.

This descriptive - cross-sectional study carried out on 461 inpatients in Kashan University of Medical Sciences hospitals with a reliable (spearman Brown, r =0.83) and valid (face and content) researcher made questionnaire in two sections: demographic information and study objects. Data collected by interviews, analyzed by SPSS, and presented by descriptive statistics.

We found %42.1 and %26.7 of participants had knowledge about computer and the Internet respectively; %41.9 had the Internet access; 86.3% and 88.3% were interested to access and get medical records and their information respectively. They intended to get test (%85.7), refill their prescription (79%), get appointment (%76.4), consult with physicians (%80), and get information about diets (80%) through ITs..

ITs attitude in inpatients was relatively good. We recommend providing inpatients information needs especially about prescriptions order and diets by CD, or Internet by hospital's sites; and introduced them good medical sites to patient were recommended.