Patient-reported outcomes and digital literacy of patients treated in an oncology day hospital unit

Abstract

Introduction

Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) use, via a computer registry, allows patients to report their symptoms enabling the detection of early signs of progression of the disease. For such a record, the patient needs to show certain skills in new technologies use. The present study aimed to analyse the perception and degree of digital literacy of patients undergoing oncological treatment in an Oncology Day Hospital (ODH).

Methods

A cross-sectional descriptive study was performed, where the degree of literacy of patients attending antineoplastic treatment at the ODH was examined by means of an anonymous survey.

Results

A total of 122 patients have been included in the study. The proportion of subjects who use the electronic mail (TM) and the Internet on a daily basis was 45.1% and 70.5%, respectively, and up to 77.9% from the subjects considered that the use of digital 2.0 strategies could help improve communication between healthcare professional and patient.

The TM was determined by the age, educational level and employment status of the individual. Furthermore, the age of the patients conditioned their perception of the usefulness of the web 2.0 tools (T2.0).

Conclusion

This study allowed us to establish a target patient profile to conduct the efficient monitoring of cancer progression by PROs. The results have shown that approximately 60% of the patients in our population could be potential candidates to receive PROs-based health care. This approach enables earlier detection of symptoms and signs of progression and consequently, improves health outcomes for cancer patients.