Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Jul 14, 2025
Date Accepted: Jan 31, 2026
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
An Evaluation of Early Adopters Sharing Digital Patient-Generated Health Data in a Large Integrated Healthcare System
ABSTRACT
Background:
The integration of patient-generated health data (PGHD) into healthcare has the potential to significantly transform patient care and clinical practice. PGHD includes health-related data created by patients, enabling the collection of health data beyond traditional healthcare settings. The Veterans Health Administration (VA) has taken proactive steps to incorporate PGHD into healthcare through the Share My Health Data mobile app. Launched in 2023, the Share My Health Data app allows Veterans to securely share data from their personal digital health devices with the VA for clinical and research use. Understanding early adopters of the Share My Health Data app is essential for informing future initiatives to promote broader engagement and enhance personalized treatment strategies.
Objective:
We assessed factors associated with early adoption of the VA Share My Health Data mobile app, which allows Veterans to share PGHD with the VA.
Methods:
We conducted a retrospective cohort study of Veterans using the Share My Health Data app between October 2023 and September 2024 (n=2,765) and compared demographic and clinical characteristics to a random sample of Veterans not using the app (n=622,532).
Results:
Adjusted analyses revealed that being female (OR=1.31, 95% CI: 1.18–1.44), living in higher income zip codes (OR=1.05, 95% CI: 1.03–1.06), having a service-connected disability (OR=1.77, 95% CI: 1.58–1.99), having 1 (OR=1.63, 95% CI: 1.49–1.79) or ≥2 physiological chronic conditions (OR=1.74, 95% CI: 1.55–0.94), and having ≥2 mental health conditions (OR=1.37, 95% CI: 1.25–1.50) was associated with increased odds of Share My Health Data app use. Conversely, being older (OR=0.97, 95% CI: 0.97–0.97), Black non-Hispanic (OR=0.69, 95% CI: 0.62–0.77), other race/ethnicity (OR=0.79, 95% CI: 0.64–0.97), or unknown race/ethnicity (OR=0.78, 95% CI: 0.67–0.90), living in a rural area (OR=0.82, 95% CI: 0.76–0.90), and being divorced/separated (OR=0.85, 95% CI: 0.78–0.93) or singled/widowed (OR=0.56, 95% CI: 0.53–0.66) were associated with decreased odds of app use.
Conclusions:
Early adopters of the Share My Health Data app differed from the general population of VA patients in terms of demographics and clinical presentation. Describing early adopters of the Share My Health Data app can provide insight into the types of patients who may be most willing to see PGHD integrated into the delivery and receipt of their healthcare.
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