Objective: The objectives of this study are (1) to establish a ubiquitous healthcare (u-healthcare) center for those who wish to use u-healthcare, allowing them to experience the service, and (2) to evaluate the users' awareness and expectations of the service based on their overall assessment.
Materials and methods: To establish the u-healthcare center, a kiosk, devices for health checkup, a body-type examination system, and a physical fitness assessment system were installed. Also, a u-healthcare Web site was developed. A survey was conducted on 280 individuals who visited the u-healthcare center and used the service, to determine (1) individual awareness of u-healthcare before using the service and their change of perception after use, (2) factors that affect the use of u-healthcare, and (3) the effects of disease awareness on exercise habits.
Results: Only 25.4% of the participants were aware of u-healthcare, and only 36% who saw the u-healthcare center recognized that it was where the u-healthcare service was provided. The group of individuals who were willing to use the u-healthcare showed statistically significant differences in their satisfaction with the overall environment of the center, as well as the specificity of the descriptions, examination results, kindness of the staff, and their responses. Additionally, the group of individuals who were diagnosed with chronic diseases and the group who were not showed statistically significant differences in the number of days on which they exercised lightly or took a walk.
Conclusions: To promote the usage of u-healthcare service, the understanding of the service and the credibility of examination results need to be increased by sharing successful cases. Furthermore, to expand the use of the system that allows a person to regularly check his or her state of health, a lifelong periodical management system linked with another medical welfare program will be needed.
Keywords: Web-based healthcare service; awareness of health condition; health promotion; ubiquitous healthcare service center.