Adolescents' reasons for accessing their health records online, perceived usefulness and experienced provider encouragement: a national survey in SwedenShow others and affiliations
2024 (English)In: BMJ Paediatrics Open, E-ISSN 2399-9772, Vol. 8, no 1, article id e002258Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Background Having online access to electronic health records (EHRs) may help patients become engaged in their care at an early age. However, little is known about adolescents using patient portals. A national survey conducted within the Nordic eHealth project NORDeHEALTH provided an important opportunity to advance our understanding of adolescent users of patient portals. The present study explored reasons for reading the EHRs, the perceived usefulness of information and functions in a patient portal and the association between frequency of use and encouragement to read the EHR. Methods Data were collected in a survey using convenience sampling, available through the Swedish online health portal during 3 weeks in January and February 2022. This study included a subset of items and only respondents aged 15-19. Demographic factors and frequencies on Likert-style questions were reported with descriptive statistics, while Fisher's exact test was used to explore differences in use frequency based on having been encouraged to read by a healthcare professional (HCP). Results Of 13 008 users who completed the survey, 218 (1.7%) were unique users aged 15-19 (females: 77.1%). One-fifth (47/218, 21.6%) had been encouraged by HCPs to read their records, and having been encouraged by HCPs was related to higher use frequency (p=0.018). All types of information were rated high on usefulness, while some functions were rated low, such as blocking specific clinical notes from HCPs and managing services for family members. The main reason for reading their health records online was out of curiosity. Conclusions Adolescents who read their records online perceive it to be useful. Encouragement by HCPs can lead to increased use of patient portals among adolescents. Findings should be considered in the future design of patient portals for adolescents.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
BMJ Publishing Group Ltd, 2024. Vol. 8, no 1, article id e002258
Keywords [en]
adolescent, adult, aged, article, convenience sample, electronic health record, encouragement, female, health care personnel, human, information processing, male, medical record, Sweden, telehealth
National Category
Health Care Service and Management, Health Policy and Services and Health Economy Nursing
Research subject
Information Systems
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:his:diva-23665DOI: 10.1136/bmjpo-2023-002258ISI: 001251445700004PubMedID: 38460965Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85187555953OAI: oai:DiVA.org:his-23665DiVA, id: diva2:1846119
Funder
NordForsk, 100477Forte, Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare, 2020-01229
Note
CC BY 4.0 DEED
© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2024. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ.
Correspondence Address: J. Hagström; Department of Women's and Children's Health, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden; email: josefin.hagstrom@uu.se
This work was supported by NordForsk (grant number: 100477) and the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (FORTE) (grant number: 2020-01229).
2024-03-212024-03-212024-06-28Bibliographically approved