Impact of age, sex and surgery type on engagement with an online patient education and support platform developed for total hip and knee replacement patients

BACKGROUND: Patients should be active participants in the management of their condition and provided with appropriate information throughout their care pathway. We piloted an online digital platform (ODP) to deliver patient education and support (PES) for patients undergoing total hip (THR) and knee replacements (TKR). The aim of this study is to analyse the demographics of patients using the ODP, determine how and when they accessed the ODP and how different sexes and age groups interacted with the ODP. METHODS: Demographics and program library logs for patients registered to the ODP between 21(st) September 2017 and 28(th) May 2020 was obtained. Associations between age, sex, type of surgery and engagement were assessed using statistical comparisons. RESULTS: 1195 patients were registered on the ODP of which 832 (69.6%) accessed their carepacs. Patients accessed the content within their carepacs a mean of 29.1 times, spending a mean total time of 83 minutes. There was greater engagement for patients with a THR carepac (75.5%) compared to TKR (63.8%) (p<0.001). There were no differences in the proportion of patients that accessed the ODP or the total time spent on the platform dependent upon age (p = 0.34). Females accessed the platform more than males (p = 0.03). The use of a computer to access the ODP increased as age increased, whereas the use of a phone was favoured by the younger age groups (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: An ODP providing information to patients regarding their surgery is effective and demonstrates high levels of patient engagement. An online resource such as this does not discriminate against age or sex in terms of accessibility and can be useful for information provision.