Putting the Focus Back on the Patient: How Privacy Concerns Affect Personal Health Information Sharing Intentions

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Patient Engagement
• Health Information Exchange

Background:

• Electronic sharing of Personal Health Information (PHI) is critical for healthcare systems, yet faces significant privacy barriers.
• Limited literature exists on the electronic sharing of PHI, despite its importance.
• Regulatory frameworks like the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act address some barriers.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate factors influencing individuals' intentions to share PHI electronically with healthcare providers.
• To adapt an extended privacy model to include patient activation and issue involvement for predicting sharing intentions.
• To better represent patient interests in health information sharing settings.

Main Methods:

• A survey-based study utilizing Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) data from over 1600 participants.
• Validation of a predictive model using various statistical techniques, including assessment of measurement and structural models.
• Application of an adapted extended privacy model incorporating patient activation and issue involvement.

Main Results:

• Privacy concern was the most significant factor influencing individuals' intentions to share PHI.
• Patient activation, issue involvement, and the patient-physician relationship were significant predictors of sharing intention.
• Patient activation and issue involvement were introduced as proxies for personal interest factors in health care contexts.

Conclusions:

• Patients express openness to sharing PHI but maintain significant privacy concerns.
• Addressing patient privacy concerns is crucial for enhancing health information flow and patient trust.
• Recommendations are provided to motivate PHI sharing, aiming to improve integrated patient health profiles and patient-physician proximity.