TY - JOUR
T1 - Trends and Predictors of Use of Digital Health Technology in the United States
AU - Mahajan, Shiwani
AU - Lu, Yuan
AU - Spatz, Erica S.
AU - Nasir, Khurram
AU - Krumholz, Harlan M.
N1 - Funding Information:
Conflict of Interest: SM has no potential competing interests. YL is supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute ( K12HL138037 ) and the Yale Center for Implementation Science. She was a recipient of a research agreement, through Yale University, from the Shenzhen Center for Health Information for work to advance intelligent disease prevention and health promotion. ESS receives support from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to support quality measurement programs; the Food and Drug Administration to support projects within the Yale-Mayo Clinic Center of Excellence in Regulatory Science and Innovation (CERSI); the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities ( U54MD010711-01 ) to study precision-based approaches to diagnosing and preventing hypertension; and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering ( R01EB028106-01 ) to study a cuff-less blood pressure device. KN is supported by the Jerold B. Katz Academy of Translational Research. He also serves on the Advisory Board for Amgen, Novartis, and Esperion. HMK works under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to support quality measurement programs; was a recipient of a research grant, through Yale, from Medtronic and the United States Food and Drug Administration to develop methods for post-market surveillance of medical devices; was a recipient of a research grant with Medtronic, and is the recipient of a research grant from Johnson & Johnson, through Yale University, to support clinical trial data sharing; was a recipient of a research agreement, through Yale University, from the Shenzhen Center for Health Information for work to advance intelligent disease prevention and health promotion; collaborates with the National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases in Beijing; receives payment from the Arnold & Porter Law Firm for work related to the Sanofi clopidogrel litigation, from the Ben C. Martin Law Firm for work related to the Cook Celect IVC filter litigation, and from the Siegfried and Jensen Law Firm for work related to Vioxx litigation; chairs a Cardiac Scientific Advisory Board for UnitedHealth; was a participant/participant representative of the IBM Watson Health Life Sciences Board; is a member of the Advisory Board for Element Science, the Advisory Board for Facebook, and the Physician Advisory Board for Aetna; and is a co-founder of HugoHealth, a personal health information platform, and co-founder of Refactor Health, an enterprise health care artificial intelligence-augmented data management company.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2021/1
Y1 - 2021/1
N2 - Background: Digital health technology is becoming central to health care. A better understanding of the trends and predictors of its use could reflect how people engage with the health care system and manage their health care needs. Methods: Using data from the National Health Interview Survey for years 2011 to 2018, we assessed the use of digital health technology among individuals aged ≥18 years in the United States across 2 domains: 1) search for health information online and 2) interaction with health care providers (eg, fill a prescription, schedule a medical appointment, or communicate with health care providers). Results: Our study included 253,829 individuals; representing nearly 237 million adults in the United States annually; mean age 49.6 years (SD 18.4); 51.8% women; and 65.9% non-Hispanic white individuals. Overall, 49.2% of individuals reported searching for health information online and 18.5% reported at least 1 technology-based interaction with the health care system. Between 2011 and 2018, the proportion who searched for health information online increased from 46.5% to 55.3% (P < .001), whereas the proportion who used technology to interact with the health care system increased from 12.5% to 27.4% (P < .001). Although technology-based interaction with the health care system increased across most subgroups, there were significant disparities in the extent of increase across clinical and sociodemographic subgroups. Conclusions: The use of digital health technologies increased between 2011 and 2018, however, the uptake of these technologies has been unequal across subgroups. Future innovations and strategies should focus on expanding the reach of digital heath technology across all subgroups of society to ensure that its expansion does not exacerbate the existing health inequalities.
AB - Background: Digital health technology is becoming central to health care. A better understanding of the trends and predictors of its use could reflect how people engage with the health care system and manage their health care needs. Methods: Using data from the National Health Interview Survey for years 2011 to 2018, we assessed the use of digital health technology among individuals aged ≥18 years in the United States across 2 domains: 1) search for health information online and 2) interaction with health care providers (eg, fill a prescription, schedule a medical appointment, or communicate with health care providers). Results: Our study included 253,829 individuals; representing nearly 237 million adults in the United States annually; mean age 49.6 years (SD 18.4); 51.8% women; and 65.9% non-Hispanic white individuals. Overall, 49.2% of individuals reported searching for health information online and 18.5% reported at least 1 technology-based interaction with the health care system. Between 2011 and 2018, the proportion who searched for health information online increased from 46.5% to 55.3% (P < .001), whereas the proportion who used technology to interact with the health care system increased from 12.5% to 27.4% (P < .001). Although technology-based interaction with the health care system increased across most subgroups, there were significant disparities in the extent of increase across clinical and sociodemographic subgroups. Conclusions: The use of digital health technologies increased between 2011 and 2018, however, the uptake of these technologies has been unequal across subgroups. Future innovations and strategies should focus on expanding the reach of digital heath technology across all subgroups of society to ensure that its expansion does not exacerbate the existing health inequalities.
KW - Digital health technology
KW - Health information technology
KW - Internet use
KW - Trends
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85089587631&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85089587631&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.amjmed.2020.06.033
DO - 10.1016/j.amjmed.2020.06.033
M3 - Article
C2 - 32717188
AN - SCOPUS:85089587631
SN - 0002-9343
VL - 134
SP - 129
EP - 134
JO - American Journal of Medicine
JF - American Journal of Medicine
IS - 1
ER -