The role of health information kiosks in diverse settings: a systematic review.

Background Public access computing through computer kiosks placed in clinical and community settings may help bridge the digital health information divide. Objective The objective was to examine the current utilisation of computer based health information kiosks in diverse settings. Further, the objective was to examine the locations for health kiosks, kiosk features, application of theoretical framework in the design and development of health kiosks and the outcomes assessed. Methods A search was conducted using Pubmed and CINAHL with articles published from January 2005 to January 2012. The articles that focused on the use of computer based health information kiosks in community and clinical settings. Results The majority of the 31 articles included in this study were conducted in urban settings (90%; n = 28), clinical settings (58%; n = 18) and focused on child safety (19%; n = 6). Computer-based tailoring was utilised in majority of the studies (77%; n = 24). However, limited studies described the theoretical frameworks to facilitate this tailoring (42%; n = 13). Conclusions The results suggest that health information kiosks are a feasible medium to disseminate health information among various users in clinical and community settings, with high acceptance and satisfaction by users. Theoretical driven interventions are needed to examine long term impacts of health information kiosks especially in rural and underserved populations.