Japanese Consumers’ Attitudes towards Obtaining and Sharing Health Information Regarding Over-the-Counter Medication: Designing an Over-the-Counter Electronic Health Record

Abstract

Designing an over-the-counter medication electronic health record (OTC-EHR) may help improve OTC usage. An online survey for the conceptual OTC-EHR design examined participant characteristics, attitudes towards obtaining user-shared OTC medication information, health-related application usage, and the inclination to share anonymized health information. Descriptive statistics, tests to assess statistical significance, and text mining were used to analyze the results. The findings revealed that Japanese consumers, particularly those with high eHealth literacy and women, possess relatively positive attitudes towards obtaining user-shared OTC medication information than those with low eHealth literacy (t (280.71) = −4.11, p < 0.001) and men (t (262.26) = −2.78, p = 0.006), respectively. Most consumers own smartphones but do not use health-related applications. A minority held positive attitudes about sharing anonymized health information. The perceived helpfulness of OTC-EHR was positively associated with the usage of health-related applications (χ2 (4) = 18.35, p = 0.001) and attitude towards sharing anonymized health information (χ2 (3) = 19.78, p < 0.001). The study findings contribute towards OTC-EHR’s design to enhance consumers’ self-medication and reduce risks, while the psychological barriers to sharing anonymized health information should be improved by increasing the OTC-EHR’s penetration rate and engaging in appropriate information design.