Acceptability of health information technology aimed at environmental health education in a prenatal clinic.

Objective To describe the acceptability of an interactive computer kiosk that provides environmental health education to low-income Latina prenatal patients. Methods A mixed-methods approach was used to assess the acceptability of the Prenatal Environmental Health Kiosk pregnant Latina women in Salinas, CA ( n = 152). The kiosk is a low literacy, interactive touch-screen computer program with an audio component and includes graphics and an interactive game. Results The majority had never used a kiosk before. Over 90% of women reported that they learned something new while using the kiosk. Prior to using the kiosk, 22% of women reported their preference of receiving health education from a kiosk over a pamphlet or video compared with 57% after using the kiosk ( p < 0.01). Qualitative data revealed: (1) benefit of exposure to computer use; (2) reinforcing strategy of health education; and (3) popularity of the interactive game. Conclusion The Prenatal Environmental Health Kiosk is an innovative patient health education modality that was shown to be acceptable among a population of low-income Latino pregnant women in a prenatal care clinic. Practice implications This pilot study demonstrated that a health education kiosk was an acceptable strategy for providing Latina prenatal patients with information on pertinent environmental exposures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]