Table 1.

Comparison of the published instruments for measuring consumer readiness to use digital health

Tool, Author and Year of publication	Goal	Factors	Items	Variance Explained	Limitations
PERQ, Jones et al., (2013)	Assess patient readiness to use eHealth tools	Four factors: Patients’ perception of (1) provision, (2) their personal ability and confidence, (3) their interpersonal support, and (4) relative costs in using the Internet for health	Nine	Not mentioned	Is not a conceptually and psychometrically validated tool
eHEALAS, Norman and Skinner, (2006)	Assess user skill and knowledge with digital solutions	Single-factor instrument	10	56%	Can’t measure consumers’ skills directly, presents a limitation in testing with a population that has high rates of information technology familiarity and older adults
SUTAQ, Hirani et al., (2016)	Assess the acceptance of telemedicine tools	Five factors: perceived benefit, privacy and discomfort, care personnel concerns, kit as a substitution, and satisfaction	22	60.7	Did not consider user’s knowledge and skills about information technologies
READHY, Kayser et al., (2019)	Measure consumer readiness to use health technologies	Five factors: users’ knowledge and skills (3 items: using technology to process health information; understanding of health concepts and language ability to actively engage with digital services); self-management of disease (2 items: self-monitoring and insight; skills and technique acquisition); perceptions and mindset (4 items: feel safe and in control; motivated to engage with digital services; constructive attitudes and approaches; emotional distress); experience with health technology systems (2 items: access to digital services that work; digital services that suit individual needs); understanding of the extent to which users feel supported by relatives, peers, and health professionals (2 items:, feeling understood and supported by health care providers; social support for health)	65	Not mentioned	Insufficient sample size
PRE-HIT, Koopman et al., (2014)	Measure patient readiness to interact with health technologies	Eight factors: health information needs, computer anxiety, computer/ internet experience, and expertise, preferred mode of interaction, no news is good news, relationship with doctor, cell phone expertise, and internet privacy concerns	28	Not mentioned	The lack of certain scores to predict use and non-use of technology

PERQ patient eHealth readiness questionnaire, eHEALS eHealth literacy scale, SUTAQ service user technology acceptability questionnaire, READHY readiness and enablement index for health technology, PRE-HIT patient readiness to engage in health internet technology