Sustaining Patient Portal Continuous Use Intention and Enhancing Deep Structure Usage: Cognitive Dissonance Effects...

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Behavioral Science

Background:

• Sustaining patient portal use presents a significant challenge for healthcare organizations.
• Effective patient portal utilization can positively impact various stakeholders.
• Cognitive dissonance theory provides a framework for understanding user behavior in technology adoption.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the influence of health professional encouragement and patient security concerns on continuous patient portal use intention.
• To examine the impact of these factors on deep structure usage within patient portals.
• To understand the moderating role of health professional encouragement on the relationship between security concerns and patient portal usage.

Main Methods:

• A quantitative study involving 177 patients at a Midwestern US medical center.
• Data analysis using statistical methods to assess the relationships between variables.
• Utilizing cognitive dissonance theory to frame the research model.

Main Results:

• Health professional encouragement positively influences continuous use intention and deep structure usage.
• Patient security concerns negatively impact continuous use intention and deep structure usage.
• Health professional encouragement moderates the negative effect of security concerns, enhancing portal use.

Conclusions:

• Health professional encouragement is a key driver for sustained patient portal adoption and deep usage.
• Addressing patient security concerns is crucial, but can be mitigated by provider encouragement.
• Findings offer practical strategies for healthcare providers to improve patient portal engagement and retention.