Pros and cons of digital access to healthcare services and healthcare utilization: a quasi-experiment

Antinyan, Armenak ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9960-3618, Bellio, Stefania, Bertoni, Marco, Corazzini, Luca, Longone, Michela and Narne, Elena 2024. Pros and cons of digital access to healthcare services and healthcare utilization: a quasi-experiment. Frontiers in Behavioral Economics 3 , 1458981. 10.3389/frbhe.2024.1458981

PDF - Published Version Download (338kB)

Abstract

Objectives: We study the introduction of a web portal allowing women to manage their appointments in the public cervical cancer screening program of an Italian Local Health Unit (LHU). We investigate how this intervention affects program participation and the ability of the LHU to collect information on women's screening outside the program. Methods: We use administrative data from the LHU and a difference-in-differences design to compare outcomes of women in the treated group (n=870), who could reschedule appointments either through phone calls or through the portal, and the control group (n=768), who could only reschedule by phone. Results: The portal reduces the number of appointments rescheduled by phone (b = −0.176, 95% CI = −0.228 to −0.114, p < 0.001). It also makes women more likely to report both screenings outside the program (b = 0.049, 95% CI = 0.006–0.912, p < 0.05) and the various reasons for canceling their appointments. However, the portal also decreases the probability of screening (b = −0.156, 95% CI = −0.216–0.096, p < 0.001). Two-thirds of this reduction is due to increased unjustified no-shows (b = 0.099, 95% CI = 0.043–0.155, p < 0.001). Conclusions: Digital innovations increase efficiency of screening programs. However, they may discourage screening, by triggering behavioral biases such as limited attention and procrastination. Pairing portals with frequent reminders may help to boost participation.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Published
Schools:	Business (Including Economics)
Additional Information:	License information from Publisher: LICENSE 1: URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Publisher:	Frontiers Media S.A.
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	21 November 2024
Date of Acceptance:	30 September 2024
Last Modified:	09 Dec 2024 16:30
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/174198

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item