2024 Volume 32 Issue 2 Pages 84-93
Objective: This study aimed to investigate the advantages and disadvantages of using information and communications technology (ICT) for counseling in order to enable effective implementation of specific health guidance through ICT.
Methods: Web-based and interview surveys were conducted from August to September 2022 among dietitians who had contracted with outsourcing company A, a contractor of specific health guidance, and had conducted first counseling sessions both face-to-face and through ICT. The survey items included attributes, advantages, and disadvantages of ICT-based counseling. The web-based survey inquired about the advantages and disadvantages of the open-ended format. The advantages and disadvantages of ICT-based counseling were extracted from the open-ended responses and verbatim transcripts of the interviews and were coded and categorized.
Results: The web and interview surveys were completed by 78 and 6 respondents, respectively. We identified 495 codes as advantages of ICT-based counseling, and divided them into the following categories: convenience, ease of counseling, sharing and managing materials, ease of teaching, infectious disease-related, and learning and experience. Next, 484 codes were extracted as disadvantages and organized into the following categories: physical barriers to ICT use, cognitive barriers to ICT use, communication, difficulty in teaching, materials and tools, environment setting, and time coordination.
Conclusion: ICT-based counseling has both advantages and disadvantages. To implement more efficient and effective specific health guidance, it is necessary to use both ICT and face-to-face counseling according to the subjects and environment.
