Digital health tools, including patient portals, treatment applications, and online appointment schedulers, are becoming more prevalent. However, not everyone finds them easy to use.
Research reveals how factors like language, education level, and age influence a person’s comfort with digital health tools.
Digital health tools, such as patient portals, treatment apps, and online scheduling systems, are increasingly widespread. Yet, not all individuals feel equally proficient in utilizing them.
To explore how language, education, and age impact individuals’ ease of using these digital resources, researchers from UC San Francisco conducted a survey with caregivers of hospitalized children at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals.
The findings indicated that Spanish-speaking individuals, those with lower educational attainment, and older adults generally reported feeling less at ease with digital health tools.
“While these digital health tools are designed to enhance health access and outcomes, they need to be effective for individuals from diverse backgrounds to prevent widening existing health disparities,” stated Naomi Bardach, MD, a pediatrics professor at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals.
“Our goal is to ensure no one is excluded, whether they are seniors, individuals with lower education levels, or those from specific racial, ethnic, or linguistic groups.”
This research will be published on December 17 in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.
Comfort Levels May Impact Treatment
The researchers gauged participants’ perceptions of their ability to interact with digital tools, their motivation to use them, and their feelings of safety and control while using these tools. This aimed to assess concerns regarding the privacy of digital health resources.
Education emerged as the primary factor influencing comfort, after language. Those with a high school education or less were significantly associated with lower comfort scores in the three areas evaluated.
Latinx and Black caregivers reported notably lower feelings of safety and control when using digital tools. In contrast, caregivers from rural areas expressed higher confidence regarding privacy and greater motivation to utilize these digital resources.
Individuals over 45 showed less enthusiasm for using digital tools and reported feeling less safe and in control. Nevertheless, they felt capable of engaging with these tools if they chose to.
“Access to these digital resources influences various activities, such as ordering medication refills online, monitoring daily steps, or enabling a child to play therapeutic games for ADHD,” Bardach explained.
“It is crucial for us to consider how we can ensure everyone feels comfortable using these tools, and when they can’t, how we can offer alternative solutions.”
