Patient portal engagement and diabetes management among new portal users in the Veterans Health Administration
Authors
Zocchi, Mark S.Robinson, Stephanie A.
Ash, Arlene S.
Vimalananda, Varsha G.
Wolfe, Hill L.
Hogan, Timothy P.
Connolly, Samantha L.
Stewart, Maureen T.
Am, Linda
Netherton, Dane
Shimada, Stephanie L
UMass Chan Affiliations
Population and Quantitative Health SciencesUMass Chan Analytics
Biostatistics and Health Services Research
Document Type
Journal ArticlePublication Date
2021-09-18Keywords
Type 2Veterans
diabetes mellitus
patient portals
Endocrine System Diseases
Health Information Technology
Health Services Administration
Health Services Research
Military and Veterans Studies
Nutritional and Metabolic Diseases
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
OBJECTIVE: The study sought to investigate whether consistent use of the Veterans Health Administration's My HealtheVet (MHV) online patient portal is associated with improvement in diabetes-related physiological measures among new portal users. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of new portal users with type 2 diabetes that registered for MHV between 2012 and 2016. We used random-effect linear regression models to examine associations between months of portal use in a year (consistency) and annual means of the physiological measures (hemoglobin A1c [HbA1c], low-density lipoproteins [LDLs], and blood pressure [BP]) in the first 3 years of portal use. RESULTS: For patients with uncontrolled HbA1c, LDL, or BP at baseline, more months of portal use in a year was associated with greater improvement. Compared with 1 month of use, using the portal 12 months in a year was associated with annual declines in HbA1c of -0.41% (95% confidence interval [CI], -0.46% to -0.36%) and in LDL of -6.25 (95% CI, -7.15 to -5.36) mg/dL. Twelve months of portal use was associated with minimal improvements in BP: systolic BP of -1.01 (95% CI, -1.33 to -0.68) mm Hg and diastolic BP of -0.67 (95% CI, -0.85 to -0.49) mm Hg. All associations were smaller or not present for patients in control of these measures at baseline. CONCLUSIONS: We found consistent use of the patient portal among new portal users to be associated with modest improvements in mean HbA1c and LDL for patients at increased risk at baseline. For patients with type 2 diabetes, self-management supported by online patient portals may help control HbA1c, LDL, and BP. Informatics Association 2021. This work is written by US Government employees and is in the public domain in the US.Source
Zocchi MS, Robinson SA, Ash AS, Vimalananda VG, Wolfe HL, Hogan TP, Connolly SL, Stewart MT, Am L, Netherton D, Shimada SL. Patient portal engagement and diabetes management among new portal users in the Veterans Health Administration. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2021 Sep 18;28(10):2176-2183. doi: 10.1093/jamia/ocab115. PMID: 34339500; PMCID: PMC8449618. Link to article on publisher's site
DOI
10.1093/jamia/ocab115Permanent Link to this Item
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/46949PubMed ID
34339500Related Resources
Rights
Copyright Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association 2021. This work is written by US Government employees and is in the public domain in the US.ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1093/jamia/ocab115