Keywords

Diabetes, Distress, Patient portal, Personal health record, Psychosocial, Self-management

 

Authors

  1. Fisher-Grace, Khaliah MSN, RN
  2. Turk, Melanie T. PhD, MSN, RN
  3. Anthony, Mary K. PhD, RN
  4. Chia, Lichun (Rebecca) PhD, RN

Abstract

More than 30 million persons in the United States have diagnosed or undiagnosed diabetes. Persons with chronic types of diabetes must learn self-management principles and techniques and perform self-care behaviors to reduce the risk of diabetes-related complications. An electronic personal health record is one type of technology commonly used to support diabetes self-management. This integrative review examines research on how personal health records incorporate or address the American Association of Diabetes Educators self-care behaviors, diabetes-related psychosocial concerns, and the diabetes-related clinical quality-of-care measures of hemoglobin A1c, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and blood pressure. In the majority of studies reviewed, participants showed improvement in the self-care behavior or physiological outcome examined. Findings were inconclusive about the impact of personal health record use on diabetes distress. Results also revealed a lack evidence of patient specific factors influencing intention to use a personal health record for management of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Despite evidence that personal health record use improves diabetes self-management, they are underutilized. Implications for practice include understanding what influences intention to use a personal health record. Further research is also needed to determine the impact of personal health record use on diabetes distress.