Abstract
Objective
Failure to transfer care to adult medicine is associated with gaps in health care
access and poor health outcomes among young adults. We examined whether a patient
portal educational intervention is acceptable and can improve adolescent and young
adult (AYA) self-management skills toward transition readiness to adult care.
Methods
We conducted a single site feasibility study using a mixed research method consisting
of 1) a patient portal one-on-one educational intervention with pre- and postsurveys
adapted from the Transition Readiness Assessment Questionnaire to assess participant
self-management skills and portal user activity; 2) portal user experience was assessed
through semistructured interviews until thematic saturation was reached. Study participants
were 13 to 25 years old and received care at an academic-affiliated community pediatric
clinic. Descriptive statistics were used to describe participant characteristics,
paired t tests, or Wilcoxon signed-rank tests to assess outcomes of survey response changes
pre- versus postintervention.
Results
Sixty percent of enrolled participants (N = 78) completed the surveys. Following the
educational intervention, we observed an increase in participants self-reporting knowing
how to access their protected health information P < .0001, (95%, confidence interval [CI], 1–2) and in the proportion of participants
self-reporting to strongly agree to know their medication P = .025 (95%, CI 0–1). We also observed an increase in portal user access at 3 weeks;
the median number of logins was 2 per participant (range 1–36, P < .0001). The Portal user experience was strongly positive.
Conclusion
Our patient portal educational intervention suggests that AYAs welcome a patient portal
to access protected health information and is associated with an increase in the proportion
of participants self-reporting to strongly agree with knowing their medication. While
these results are encouraging, this is a quasiexperimental study designed on the frame
of feasibility. Our study was not adequately powered, limiting our findings' significance.
Future interventions would benefit from a larger sample size with a comparison group
to ascertain the effect of a patient portal on self-management skills in a diverse
AYA population and inform best practices.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 08, 2023
Accepted:
February 4,
2023
Received:
September 10,
2022
Publication stage
In Press Journal Pre-ProofFootnotes
The authors have no financial relationships or conflict of interest relevant to this article to disclose.
Identification
Copyright
Copyright © 2023 by Academic Pediatric Association
