Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Sep 20, 2024
Open Peer Review Period: Oct 14, 2024 - Dec 9, 2024
Date Accepted: May 21, 2025
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Barriers to Patient Portal Adoption Among a Bilingual Patient Population: Survey Findings from English and Spanish Speaking-Patients
ABSTRACT
Objective:
The purpose of this article was to advance understanding of potential barriers to patient portal adoption, explore willingness to adopt an electronic portal, and examine differences between language preferences. Materials and
Methods:
English and Spanish-speaking patients (N=107) were surveyed from a community clinic. Linear and logistic regressions were performed to predict the probability that patients would adopt the patient portal.
Results:
Only 65% of participants said they envisioned themselves using the patient portal. Participants reported barriers such as stronger preference for in-person communication with their physician, concerns about privacy, language difficulties, lack of comfort with portals, and poor design. Spanish-speaking patients were more willing to get e-info about medication reminders, diagnostic, and vital signs, than English speakers. Conclusion: Understanding cultural differences and empowering patients to have more autonomy over their health and decision-making leads to a more meaningful experience with their physicians potentially overcoming low health literacy-related barriers.
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Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.