Sara Teresa Jonsdottir

University of Iceland, Iceland

Title: Culture and end-users’ trust in electronic health interactions: A scoping review of the literature

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Biography

Abstract

With the current pandemic of Covid19 technology is rapidly changing the way health care is delivered. Electronic health care (eHealth) indisputably adds complexity to end-user’s trust, but trust is a prerequisite for eHealth’s success. Importantly, culture is the antecedent for creating this trust. Mapping the literature can help create a coherent understanding of the relationship between culture and end-users trust in eHealth interactions, as well as identify gaps and informing future research. This scoping review was guided by Joanna Briggs Institute guidelines and the PRISMA-ScR checklist, where no boundaries for publication type, year, or language were set. Searches in three databases yielded 1129 titles (PubMed n =800; PsycInfo n =310; and Cochrane Library n =19) of these 40 articles were included. Data was analyzed using quantitative and qualitative methods. Thematic analysis identified 3 areas linking end-users trust in eHealth interaction to culture: Intrapersonal Trust ( n =7) linking end-users’ cultural characteristics (e.g. ethnicity/race, language, and immigration) and trust in own abilities to use eHealth; Interpersonal Trust ( n =22) linking end-users’ trust in direct eHealth interactions with cultural tailoring of eHealth services or cultural likeness between patient-providers; and Institutional Trust ( n =10) linking end-users’ trust in eHealth interactions within the socio-cultural context of marginalized and historically disadvantaged populations (e.g. Indigenous people). History of systemic racism and mistreatment increased mistrust in eHealth interactions, both in the interpersonal and the institutional domains. eHealth trust is to some extent related to culture, which arises from the individual, the community, and environment, however, the literature was dispersed making any conclusive findings difficult.