The unprecedented rapid growth of digital health has brought new opportunities to the health field. However, elderly patients with chronic diseases, as an important potential beneficiary group, are affected by the digital divide, leading to unsatisfactory usage of digital health technologies (DHTs). Our study focused on the factors influencing the adoption of DHTs among this vulnerable group. To extend the UTAUT theory, technology anxiety and several demographic predictors were included to address the age characteristics of the respondents. An on-site survey was conducted in general, district, and community hospitals in Shanghai (n = 309). Facilitating conditions negatively influenced technology anxiety. Technology anxiety hindered behavioural intention. Social influence had a significant but negative impact on behavioural intention. Education, whether older adults have had experience with DHTs and previous smartphone usage experiences were significantly associated with technology anxiety. The findings provide valuable information for multiple stakeholders, including family members of elderly users, product designers, and policymakers. Ameliorating facilitating conditions, improving devices’ usage experience, encouraging attempts and focusing on groups with lower educational levels can help to reduce technology anxiety and promote DHT acceptance and use in older age groups.

Introduction: The health hotline (12320) of Shanghai, not only offers residents information about health knowledge, policies and regulations, but also serves as a channel for public supervision on health issues. This study explored the content of calls towards the Shanghai health hotline (SHH)...

Objective: Our study aims to explore the health service issues of public concern through analyzing the basic characteristics of callers and information from the health hotline in Shanghai. The findings of this study will provide a reference to relevant government departments and assist the government in optimizing the allocation of health resources.Methods: Our research utilized 16,962 original work orders from the 12,320 health hotline, collected since 2015. We applied natural language processing (NLP) to analyze the content of these work orders, facilitating effective text mining and information extraction. Initially, we performed data cleaning to remove irrelevant information and protect caller privacy by anonymizing personal details. This cleaned data was then organized into a structured database for further analysis. Using text mining, we examined various aspects of the calls, including duration, purpose, and topics discussed, to identify patterns and themes that emerged.Results: The calls were categorized into four main groups: complaints, suggestions, inquiries, and requests for assistance. Complaints were the most frequent category, totaling 8,669 (51.11%), followed by help-seeking at 3,335 (19.66%), consultations at 2,727 (16.08%), and comments and suggestions at 1,484 (8.75%). The analysis revealed that men made 6,689 (56.88%), surpassing the 5,071 (43.12%) from women. Additionally, calls from parents numbered 2,126 (56.84%), slightly exceeding the 1,614 (43.16%) from children. The top 10 health service concerns identified in Shanghai included medical staff attitudes, medications, fees, registration, family planning, medical disputes, ambulance services, environmental health, illegal medical practices, and immunization.Conclusions: This study not only identifies critical issues within the Shanghai health service system but also offers actionable insights to inform targeted policy interventions. The high volume of complaints regarding service attitudes and medical expenses underscores the need for stronger policies to improve patient-provider communication and ensure transparency and fairness in healthcare costs. Additionally, the data reveals considerable public concern about the availability and quality of medical services, suggesting that existing policies on resource allocation and service delivery may not adequately meet population needs. The methodologies employed here can be applied to other urban health contexts, providing a valuable framework for improving public health strategies globally.