Utilization of Consumer Health Informatics in Health Promotion among Staff of Tertiary Institutions in Rivers State

Abstract

This study investigated the utilization of consumer health informatics in health promotion among the staff of tertiary institutions in Rivers state. A cross-sectional descriptive research design was used. Two research questions guided this paper. The population of this paper comprised all the 13,046 staff of tertiary institutions in Rivers state. A sample of 1226 staff was drawn using multi-stage sampling techniques. An instrument titled, “Utilization of Consumer Health Informatics in Health Promotion Questionnaire” (UCHIHPQ) was adopted for data collection. The instrument was validated and reliability yielded an index of 0.80. Mean and Standard Deviation statistics were used to answer the research questions. The statistical analysis was performed with the use of SPSS v23. The result revealed among others that to a very large extent, the respondents accepted that consumer health informatics was used to improve their nutritional and physical health status. It was therefore concluded and recommended among others that staff of tertiary institutions in Rivers state should regularly use intelligent informatics applications to attain a healthy balance between self-reliance and seeking professional help concerning nutritional and physical health matters.