2023 Canadian Digital Health Survey

Understanding Canadians' experiences with digital health

Study Objectives

Infoway has been tracking specific aspects of digital health awareness, use, and perceptions among Canadians annually since 2010. The 2023 Canadian Digital Health Survey is based on a variety of specific system utilization and attitudinal tracking metrics.

The core research objective of the survey is to update and trend current understanding of Canadians’ attitudes, utilization, perceptions, and expectations regarding digital health services in Canada. The results of this study will provide actionable insights to help advise Infoway on a variety of business initiatives, including education and/or engagement initiatives.

Specific objectives of the study are to assess:

  • Health Status & Utilization: understanding of Canadians’ health status, access to and use of healthcare services.
  • Digital health landscape in Canada: demand for and use of digitally enabled health services (including ability to access, edit and contribute to their comprehensive health records (CHR) electronically, patient’s online portals, their needs to access their CHR and access to their consumer apps, e-prescribing and e-mental health services) in Canada.
  • Caregivers’ access to CHR of the patient(s) they care for.
  • Virtual care services: access, utilization, perceptions, appropriateness, and health care needs.
  • Interoperability (landscape from the patient’s perspective): understanding of Canadians’ current experience, expectations around the seamless exchange of their health information (experience of caregivers, cross-border care).
  • Digital health equity: access to and utilization of health services across sociodemographic factors (age, gender, ethnicity, geographic location, household income level, etc.) as well as underserved communities and Canadians living in remote regions.
  • Digital health literacy: Canadians’ skills and competences to access and use digitally enabled health services.
  • Emerging Technology: perceptions (trust, use of data) around AI and other future technologies.

Methodology

The Canadian Digital Health Survey (CDHS) is an annual cross-sectional survey that collects data on the access to and use of digital health services. The survey was made available online in both English and French in December 2023. A representative sample of 10,130 Canadians was achieved across provinces and territories. This survey collects data on the access to and use of digital health services, along with the factors influencing access and utilization patterns. It has a range of patients-reported experience questions aimed at knowing about patients’ perspectives of their experience with connected health and coordination of care. In addition, several socio-demographic, economic, racial, geographic, and health status descriptors are collected by the survey.

Using Canadian Census data, weighting was applied according to region, age, and gender in order to render a representative sample of the Canadian population. Sample base sizes indicated are unweighted. A margin of error cannot be associated with a non-probability sample in a panel survey. For comparison purposes, a probability sample of this size would have a margin of error ±0.878%, %, 19 times out of 20.

Interpretation of Data

Privacy: Data visualizations do not allow for filtering of data where sample sizes are smaller than 30 respondents in order to preserve respondent anonymity.

Rounding Error: The data presented have been rounded. As a result, totals may differ slightly from 100%