The association between electronic health information usage and patient-centered communication: a cross sectional analysis from the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS)

Abstract

BackgroundPatient-provider communication can be assessed by the patient-centered communication (PCC) score. With rapid development of electronic health (eHealth) information usage, we are uncertain of their role in PCC. Our study aims to determine the association between PCC and eHealth usage with the analysis of national representative survey data.MethodsThis is a cross sectional analysis using the Health Information National Trends Survey 5 (HINTS 5) cycle 1 to cycle 4 data (2017–2020). Seven specific questions were used for PCC assessment, and eHealth usage was divided into two types (private-eHealth and public-eHealth usage). A multivariate logistic regression was performed to determine the association between PCC and eHealth usage after the adjustment of other social, demographic, and clinical variables.ResultsOur study analyzed a total of 13,055 unweighted participants representing a weighted population of 791,877,728. Approximately 43% of individuals used private eHealth and 19% used public eHealth. The adjusted odds ratio (AOR) of private-eHealth usage associated with positive PCC was 1.17 (95% CI 1.02–1.35, p = 0.027). The AOR of public-eHealth usage associated with positive PCC was 0.84 (95% CI 0.71–0.99, p = 0.043).ConclusionOur study found that eHealth usage association with PCC varies. Private-eHealth usage was positively associated with PCC, whereas public-eHealth usage was negatively associated with PCC.