ArticleJournal of medical Internet research2019
Difference Between Users and Nonusers of a Patient Portal in Health Behaviors and Outcomes: Retrospective Cohort Study.
Article in Journal of medical Internet research, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 23 citations in OpenAlex.
- A Process Related View on the Usage of Electronic Health Records from the Patients' Perspective: A Systematic Review.Journal of medical systems · 2022Pooled it
- The Impact of Digital Patient Portals on Health Outcomes, System Efficiency, and Patient Attitudes: Updated Systematic Literature Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2021Pooled it
- Evaluation of Online Patient Portal vs Text-Based Blood Pressure Monitoring Among Black Patients With Medicaid and Medicare Insurance Who Have Hypertension and Cardiovascular Disease.JAMA network open · 2022Trial
- The COMPLETE-CRC Screening Initiative: Increasing Colonoscopy Completion After Positive Stool-Based Colorectal Cancer Screening.Digestive diseases and sciences · 2026Article
- Association Between Electronic Patient Portal Enrollment and HIV Care Outcomes Among People Living with HIV at an Urban Academic Medical Center.AIDS and behavior · 2026Article
- Usability and Usefulness of Occupational Health Care Patient Portals: Patient-Based Cross-Sectional Study.JMIR human factors · 2025Article
- Social Determinants of Health Mediate Racial Disparities in Cardiovascular Disease in Men With Prostate Cancer.JACC. CardioOncology · 2024Article
- Using the Translational Science Benefits Model to assess the impact of the Penn Implementation Science Center in Cancer Control.Journal of clinical and translational science · 2024Article
- Overcoming the Digital Divide for Older Patients With Respiratory Disease: Focus Group Study.JMIR formative research · 2023Article
- Development, implementation and evaluation of the digital transformation of renal services in Wales: the journey from local to national.International journal of clinical pharmacy · 2023Article
- Describing current use, barriers, and facilitators of patient portal messaging for research recruitment: Perspectives from study teams and patients at one institution.Journal of clinical and translational science · 2023Article
- Real-Time Patient Portal Use Among Emergency Department Patients: An Open Results Study.Applied clinical informatics · 2022Observational
- Characteristics of Adult Primary Care Patients Who Use the Patient Portal: A Cross-Sectional Analysis.Applied clinical informatics · 2022Article
- Email Patient-Provider Communication and Cancer Screenings Among US Adults: Cross-sectional Study.JMIR cancer · 2021Article
- Factors Affecting Portal Usage Among Chronically Ill Patients During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Netherlands: Cross-sectional Study.JMIR human factors · 2021Article
- Effects of Electronic Health Record Implementation and Barriers to Adoption and Use: A Scoping Review and Qualitative Analysis of the Content.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Article
- Association between patient-initiated emails and overall 2-year survival in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy: Evidence from the real-world setting.Cancer medicine · 2020Article
- Patient Portal Use and Cancer Screening in the United States: Individual Associations and Population Impact.Journal of primary care & community healthArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPatient portals are frequently used in modern health care systems as an engagement and communication tool. An increased focus on the potential value of these communication channels to improve health outcomes is warranted.
objectiveThis paper aimed to quantify the impact of portal use on patients' preventive health behavior and chronic health outcomes.
methodsWe conducted a retrospective, observational cohort study of 10,000 patients aged 50 years or older who were treated at the University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS) from September 1, 2014, to October 31, 2016. The data were sourced from the UPHS electronic health records. We investigated the association between patient portal use and patients' preventive health behaviors or chronic health outcomes, controlling for confounders using a novel cardinality matching approach based on propensity scoring and a subsequent bootstrapping method to estimate the variance of association estimates.
resultsPatient-level characteristics differed substantially between portal users, comprising approximately 59.32% (5932/10000) of the cohort, and nonusers. On average, users were more likely to be younger (63.46 years for users vs 66.08 years for nonusers), white (72.77% [4317/5932] for users vs 52.58% [2139/4068] for nonusers), have commercial insurance (60.99% [3618/5932] for users vs 40.12% [1632/4068] for nonusers), and have higher annual incomes (US $74,172/year for users vs US $62,940/year for nonusers). Even after adjusting for these potential confounders, patient portal use had a positive and clinically meaningful impact on patients' preventive health behaviors but not on chronic health outcomes.
conclusionsThis paper contributes to the understanding of the impact of patient portal use on health outcomes and is the first study to identify a meaningful subgroup of patients' health behaviors that improved with portal use. These findings may encourage providers to promote portal use to improve patients' preventive health behaviors.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.