Role of provider encouragement on patient engagement via online portals.

Objective: The study sought to examine whether provider encouragement is associated with improvements in engaging patients with their healthcare processes using online portals. Materials and Methods: Using the Health Information National Trends Survey 2017 (N = 2, 670), we conducted an exploratory factor analysis with varimax orthogonal rotation and derived 3 outcome variables on patient engagement: (1) information access score, (2) care convenience score, and (3) patient engagement score. Multivariable linear regression on each outcome variable was conducted with provider encouragement as the main predictor, controlling for patient demographics. Results: Women (60%), white participants (69%), and those with a college degree (49%) were more likely to report receiving provider encouragement. Those who were encouraged to use patient portals scored higher on all 3 outcome measures compared with those who were not encouraged (B = 0.80 vs B = 0.11 for information access, B = 1.13 vs B = 0.13 for care convenience, and B = 0.44 vs B = 0.05 for patient engagement; all P<.001). For every additional 100 patients receiving encouragement, 65 more information access tasks, 94 more care convenience tasks, and 40 more patient engagement tasks would be performed. Discussion: Provider encouragement was most influential concerning care convenience tasks and least influential on complex decision-making tasks. This may be due to portal design and the content available to patients, which merit consideration in future studies. Conclusions: Provider encouragement is associated with more patient engagement, as indicated by significantly higher utilization of patient portals for accessing information, participating in routine care processes, and making complex healthcare decisions.