Table 3.

Changes in Participants' Self-Reported Survey Measures from Baseline to Followup at 3 to 6 Months Post-Training

VariableBaseline Survey: N (%) or Mean (SD)Follow-up Survey: N (%) or Mean (SD)P-Value (paired t-test or McNemar's test)
Interest/attitudes related to portal use
    Internet is useful for health decisions*47 (65)54 (75).18
Important to get personal medical information electronically71 (95)70 (93)1.00
    Confident in portal safeguards/privacy60 (80)57 (76).44
    High interest in using MYSFHEALTH portal to see personal medical record§53 (72)39 (53).01
High interest in potential portal features
    Appointment reminders55 (73)56 (75).82
    General health information36 (48)42 (56).22
    Medication reminders43 (57)43 (56).83
    Lab/test results62 (83)59 (79).44
Skills for Portal Use
Self-reported skills to use portal Web site46 (63)57 (78).03
    High confidence in using MYSFHEALTH without help#47 (67)54 (77).11
    High confidence in using MYSFHEALTH to improve health#44 (63)41 (58).53
eHealth Literacy (eHeals**)14.4 (3.7)16.2 (2.4)<.001
Self-reported Chronic Disease Management
    Patient Assessment of Chronic Illness Care††3.2 (1.0)3.2 (0.9).72
    Self-Efficacy for Managing Chronic Disease‡‡6.3 (1.9)6.7 (2.0).10
  • MYSFHEALTH, the name of the online patient portal investigated in this trial; SD, standard devation.

  • Sample size is n = 75 with complete data at both time points.

  • * Usefulness categorized as very useful/useful vs. neutral/not useful/not at all useful.

  • Importance categorized as very/somewhat vs. not at all important.

  • Confidence in safeguards categorized as very/somewhat vs. not confident.

  • § Interest in portal categorized as high interest vs. low/neutral/moderate/none/need more information.

  • Interest in portal features categorized as high interest vs. somewhat/a little/not at all interested.

  • Skills categorized as strongly agree/agree vs. neutral/disagree/strongly disagree.

  • # Confidence in using portal without help and to improve health categorized as 8 to 10 vs. 1 to 7.

  • ** eHeals score calculated using 4 of 8 eHeals questions; range, 4 to 20 with higher score noting higher perceived eHealth literacy.

  • †† Patient Assessment of Chronic Illness Care Survey; range, 1 to 5 with higher score noting higher ratings of chronic illness scare.

  • ‡‡ Self-Efficacy for Managing Chronic Disease Scale; range, 1 to 10 with higher score noting higher self-efficacy.