Effects of patient-facing visualisations on the comprehension of personal health records among young and middle-older aged adults: an eye-tracking study

Digital personal health records (PHRs) are increasingly accessed by users, but how they should be presented to facilitate user comprehension is yet to be determined. We examined the effects of patient-facing visualisations on user comprehension of PHRs with eye-tracking techniques. A three-factor mixed design was used, with age as a between-subjects factor, and visualisation type and visualisation status as within-subjects factors. Both young and middle-older aged adults performed a series of comprehension tasks with PHRs presented by four visualisation types in both static and dynamic statuses. Task performance, perceptions, and eye movements were measured. Results showed that age, visualisation type, and visualisation status exerted significant, yet varied, effects on task performance for PHR comprehension. Visualisation status yielded a main effect and an interaction effect with age on perceived ease of comprehension. Eye movements were different across age groups, visualisation types, and visualisation statuses. Interaction effects were observed among these factors.