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Patients’ perspectives and preferences toward telemedicine versus in-person visits: a mixed-methods study on 1226 patients

INTRODUCTION: Despite the fact that telemedicine can eliminate geographical and time limitations and offer the possibility of diagnosing, treating, and preventing diseases by sharing reliable information, many individuals still prefer to visit medical centers for in-person consultations. The aim of...

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Autores principales: Moulaei, Khadijeh, Sheikhtaheri, Abbas, Fatehi, Farhad, Shanbehzadeh, Mostafa, Bahaadinbeigy, Kambiz
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10647122/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37968639
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12911-023-02348-4
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author Moulaei, Khadijeh
Sheikhtaheri, Abbas
Fatehi, Farhad
Shanbehzadeh, Mostafa
Bahaadinbeigy, Kambiz
author_facet Moulaei, Khadijeh
Sheikhtaheri, Abbas
Fatehi, Farhad
Shanbehzadeh, Mostafa
Bahaadinbeigy, Kambiz
author_sort Moulaei, Khadijeh
collection PubMed
description INTRODUCTION: Despite the fact that telemedicine can eliminate geographical and time limitations and offer the possibility of diagnosing, treating, and preventing diseases by sharing reliable information, many individuals still prefer to visit medical centers for in-person consultations. The aim of this study was to determine the level of acceptance of telemedicine compared to in-person visits, identify the perceived advantages of telemedicine over in-person visits, and to explore the reasons why patients choose either of these two types of visits. METHODS: We developed a questionnaire using the rational method. The questionnaire consisted of multiple-choice questions and one open-ended question. A total of 2059 patients were invited to participate in the study. Chi-square tests and descriptive statistics were employed for data analysis. To analyze the data from the open-ended question, we conducted qualitative content analysis using MAXQDA 18. RESULTS: Out of the 1226 participants who completed the questionnaire, 865 (71%) preferred in-person visits, while 361 (29%) preferred telemedicine. Factors such as education level, specific health conditions, and prior experience with telemedicine influenced the preference for telemedicine. The participants provided a total of 183 different reasons for choosing either telemedicine (108 reasons) or in-person visits (75 reasons). Avoiding infectious diseases, saving cost, and eliminating and overcoming geographical distance barriers were three primary telemedicine benefits. The primary reasons for selecting an in-person visit were: more accurate diagnosis of the disease, more accurate and better examination of the patient by the physician, and more accurate and better treatment of the disease. CONCLUSION: The results demonstrate that despite the numerous benefits offered by telemedicine, the majority of patients still exhibit a preference for in-person visits. In order to promote broader acceptance of telemedicine, it becomes crucial for telemedicine services to address patient preferences and concerns effectively. Employing effective change management strategies can aid in overcoming resistance and facilitating the widespread adoption of telemedicine within the population. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12911-023-02348-4.
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spelling pubmed-106471222023-11-15 Patients’ perspectives and preferences toward telemedicine versus in-person visits: a mixed-methods study on 1226 patients Moulaei, Khadijeh Sheikhtaheri, Abbas Fatehi, Farhad Shanbehzadeh, Mostafa Bahaadinbeigy, Kambiz BMC Med Inform Decis Mak Research INTRODUCTION: Despite the fact that telemedicine can eliminate geographical and time limitations and offer the possibility of diagnosing, treating, and preventing diseases by sharing reliable information, many individuals still prefer to visit medical centers for in-person consultations. The aim of this study was to determine the level of acceptance of telemedicine compared to in-person visits, identify the perceived advantages of telemedicine over in-person visits, and to explore the reasons why patients choose either of these two types of visits. METHODS: We developed a questionnaire using the rational method. The questionnaire consisted of multiple-choice questions and one open-ended question. A total of 2059 patients were invited to participate in the study. Chi-square tests and descriptive statistics were employed for data analysis. To analyze the data from the open-ended question, we conducted qualitative content analysis using MAXQDA 18. RESULTS: Out of the 1226 participants who completed the questionnaire, 865 (71%) preferred in-person visits, while 361 (29%) preferred telemedicine. Factors such as education level, specific health conditions, and prior experience with telemedicine influenced the preference for telemedicine. The participants provided a total of 183 different reasons for choosing either telemedicine (108 reasons) or in-person visits (75 reasons). Avoiding infectious diseases, saving cost, and eliminating and overcoming geographical distance barriers were three primary telemedicine benefits. The primary reasons for selecting an in-person visit were: more accurate diagnosis of the disease, more accurate and better examination of the patient by the physician, and more accurate and better treatment of the disease. CONCLUSION: The results demonstrate that despite the numerous benefits offered by telemedicine, the majority of patients still exhibit a preference for in-person visits. In order to promote broader acceptance of telemedicine, it becomes crucial for telemedicine services to address patient preferences and concerns effectively. Employing effective change management strategies can aid in overcoming resistance and facilitating the widespread adoption of telemedicine within the population. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12911-023-02348-4. BioMed Central 2023-11-15 /pmc/articles/PMC10647122/ /pubmed/37968639 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12911-023-02348-4 Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research
Moulaei, Khadijeh
Sheikhtaheri, Abbas
Fatehi, Farhad
Shanbehzadeh, Mostafa
Bahaadinbeigy, Kambiz
Patients’ perspectives and preferences toward telemedicine versus in-person visits: a mixed-methods study on 1226 patients
title Patients’ perspectives and preferences toward telemedicine versus in-person visits: a mixed-methods study on 1226 patients
title_full Patients’ perspectives and preferences toward telemedicine versus in-person visits: a mixed-methods study on 1226 patients
title_fullStr Patients’ perspectives and preferences toward telemedicine versus in-person visits: a mixed-methods study on 1226 patients
title_full_unstemmed Patients’ perspectives and preferences toward telemedicine versus in-person visits: a mixed-methods study on 1226 patients
title_short Patients’ perspectives and preferences toward telemedicine versus in-person visits: a mixed-methods study on 1226 patients
title_sort patients’ perspectives and preferences toward telemedicine versus in-person visits: a mixed-methods study on 1226 patients
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10647122/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37968639
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12911-023-02348-4
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