The association between information technology sophistication and patient portal use: A cross sectional study in Eastern North Carolina

Abstract

Even with the extolled benefits of patient portals, there has been some challenges to ensuring patient portal use. This study examines if a patient’s level of information technology (IT) sophistication, defined as the degree of use of diverse information technologies by an individual, is associated with their use of a patient portal. Patients previous experience and exposure to other similar technologies like desktop computer, laptop, internet, smart phone, or social media explains their willingness to use information technology for their health. Data on a cross-sectional survey of 565 individuals in Eastern NC was available for analysis. Multinomial regression analyses revealed that IT sophistication is important in determining whether patients will use a patient portal. It specifies that patients with low IT sophistication compared to those with high IT sophistication were more likely to have never activated their patient portals (RRR = 2.2155, p < 0.009), or to have activated but never used a patient portal (RRR = 3.5869, p < 0.010). The findings of this study should aid healthcare leaders as they strive to improve patient engagement. They should continue to promote the benefits of the patient portal and consider offering personalized support programs for patients with low IT sophistication.

An Assessment of Patient Portal Messaging Use by Patients With Multiple Chronic Conditions Living in Rural Communities: Retrospective Analysis

“…Studies have found that patients use portals if they perceive them to offer a relative advantage over existing practices such as calling or traveling for an inpatient visit with their provider [44]. Given that patients with multimorbidity tend to have complex health needs, rely on a network of providers, and consume more medical services than those without chronic diseases [45][46][47], theory suggests that they would be able to recognize the benefits and anticipated advantages that portal messaging could offer [48,49]. However, it is possible that such advantages are not yet fully realized by older patients or that they may focus more on the portal's incompatibility with their values or experiences.…”

Information Technology and Quality of Service during COVID-19 in a Health Center, ICA 2022

“…ICTs today are used in different fields that allow the processing, management, storage, care and sharing of information from different technological resources, for example, it has brought many benefits in the area of health [3] [4], since, during the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), the digitization of health records, care remotely, and the processing of surveys executed by health workers virtually and that this has allowed the decrease in the contagion by COVID-19 of the workers who perform these tasks [5] [6].…”