The availability of health technology, such as patient portals, may not sufficiently reduce barriers to its use among black and older patients, according to a study published in Telemedicine and e-Health.
Researchers from The Ohio State University College of Medicine in Columbus examined 842 patients admitted to the six hospitals affiliated with a large, Midwestern academic medical center from July 2017 to July 2018. These patients were given access to a tablet with a patient portal. The researchers also gathered demographic information of the participants using their EHRs and inpatient surveys.
The study shows that age and race disparities persisted in use of the patient portal. Patients ages 60 to 69 years used the patient portal 45 percent less than the 18- to 29-year-old age group. Also, the patients ages 70 and over used the inpatient portal 36 percent less than the 18-to-29 age group. Overall, black patients used the portal 40 percent less than white patients.
“When we looked at the data, we saw older patients used the tutorial feature more than younger patients, signifying older patients may need more training resources in order to increase use," said Daniel Walker, PhD, study author and assistant professor of family medicine and biomedical informatics in the Center for the Advancement of Team Science, Analytics and Systems Thinking in Health Services and Implementation Science Research in the OSU College of Medicine.
"The use disparity between African-American and white patients suggests the differences in use may be more nuanced and not simply an access issue. Additional intervention is needed to close the digital divide," he added.
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