RETENTION AND USE OF PERSONAL HEALTH RECORDS - A POPULATION-BASED STUDY

A parent-held record has been issued to all children born in New South Wales (NSW), Australia since 1988. Five years after its introduction, an evaluation was undertaken to determine its retention rate over tim e, rate of documentation of immunization status and other important ch ild health information, and its perceived usefulness to parents. The c ross-sectional study comprised an interviewer administered questionnai re to 622 households derived from a stratified random sample of 25 loc al government areas, representative of 73% of all households containin g children under 5 years of age in NSW. A concurrent postal survey ass essed the attitudes and use of the Personal Health Record (PHR) among a stratified random sample of 981 health care providers. Results showe d that the PHR was well retained, with 89% claimed retention at 4 year s, and over 78% of parents able to produce the record for inspection a t interview. Of the records examined, 91% had at least one immunizatio n recorded while 68% had a complete regimen documented by age 4 years. Overall, 93% of parents expressed satisfaction with the PHR, while 64 % of all health care providers also felt that the PHR was 'beneficial to the health care children received', although only 53% of these used it regularly to record their findings. It is concluded that the PHR c urrently issued in NSW is well retained and valued by parents, and use d by and useful to a range of health professionals.