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“I am hesitant to visit the doctor unless absolutely necessary”: A qualitative study of delayed care, avoidance of care, and telehealth experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the health care system, resulting in decreased health care utilization. During the pandemic, some patients chose to postpone clinic visits or avoid them altogether while health care providers concurrently scaled back their services. As a result, health care has sh...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9370251/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35960102 http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000029439 |
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author | Moore, Ramey Purvis, Rachel S. Hallgren, Emily Reece, Sharon Padilla-Ramos, Alan Gurel-Headley, Morgan Hall, Spencer McElfish, Pearl A. |
author_facet | Moore, Ramey Purvis, Rachel S. Hallgren, Emily Reece, Sharon Padilla-Ramos, Alan Gurel-Headley, Morgan Hall, Spencer McElfish, Pearl A. |
author_sort | Moore, Ramey |
collection | PubMed |
description | The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the health care system, resulting in decreased health care utilization. During the pandemic, some patients chose to postpone clinic visits or avoid them altogether while health care providers concurrently scaled back their services. As a result, health care has shifted to a greater reliance on telehealth and virtual care. This study uses a qualitative descriptive design, focused on providing summaries of participant experiences of health care and telehealth utilization during the COVID-19 pandemic. Three primary themes emerged during analysis: delayed health care, avoidance of care, and experiences of telehealth. Sub-themes of delayed health care included care delays and scheduling difficulties. Participants reported avoidance of health care due to fear of COVID-19 infection, as well as general changes to care-seeking behaviors. Participants also reported positive experiences with telehealth, with some respondents noting limitations of telehealth systems, such as limitations on procedures and patient-centered monitoring of chronic illness. Our findings support studies that have found both health care delays and changes in health care utilization patterns during the pandemic. Most importantly, this study expands the literature concerning links between fear of COVID-19 and altered care-seeking behaviors, which is the first study to do so focusing on these concerns in the participants’ own words. Finally, while telehealth is promising in preserving continuity of care during pandemics, long-term integration into the health care system is not without challenges, and this study provides insights into how patients experienced telehealth during COVID-19 in their own words. Data collection, survey design, and research priorities for this study were based on input from ongoing community partnerships. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9370251 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-93702512022-08-12 “I am hesitant to visit the doctor unless absolutely necessary”: A qualitative study of delayed care, avoidance of care, and telehealth experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic Moore, Ramey Purvis, Rachel S. Hallgren, Emily Reece, Sharon Padilla-Ramos, Alan Gurel-Headley, Morgan Hall, Spencer McElfish, Pearl A. Medicine (Baltimore) Research Article The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the health care system, resulting in decreased health care utilization. During the pandemic, some patients chose to postpone clinic visits or avoid them altogether while health care providers concurrently scaled back their services. As a result, health care has shifted to a greater reliance on telehealth and virtual care. This study uses a qualitative descriptive design, focused on providing summaries of participant experiences of health care and telehealth utilization during the COVID-19 pandemic. Three primary themes emerged during analysis: delayed health care, avoidance of care, and experiences of telehealth. Sub-themes of delayed health care included care delays and scheduling difficulties. Participants reported avoidance of health care due to fear of COVID-19 infection, as well as general changes to care-seeking behaviors. Participants also reported positive experiences with telehealth, with some respondents noting limitations of telehealth systems, such as limitations on procedures and patient-centered monitoring of chronic illness. Our findings support studies that have found both health care delays and changes in health care utilization patterns during the pandemic. Most importantly, this study expands the literature concerning links between fear of COVID-19 and altered care-seeking behaviors, which is the first study to do so focusing on these concerns in the participants’ own words. Finally, while telehealth is promising in preserving continuity of care during pandemics, long-term integration into the health care system is not without challenges, and this study provides insights into how patients experienced telehealth during COVID-19 in their own words. Data collection, survey design, and research priorities for this study were based on input from ongoing community partnerships. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 2022-08-12 /pmc/articles/PMC9370251/ /pubmed/35960102 http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000029439 Text en Copyright © 2022 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial License 4.0 (CCBY-NC) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) , where it is permissible to download, share, remix, transform, and buildup the work provided it is properly cited. The work cannot be used commercially without permission from the journal. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Moore, Ramey Purvis, Rachel S. Hallgren, Emily Reece, Sharon Padilla-Ramos, Alan Gurel-Headley, Morgan Hall, Spencer McElfish, Pearl A. “I am hesitant to visit the doctor unless absolutely necessary”: A qualitative study of delayed care, avoidance of care, and telehealth experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic |
title | “I am hesitant to visit the doctor unless absolutely necessary”: A qualitative study of delayed care, avoidance of care, and telehealth experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic |
title_full | “I am hesitant to visit the doctor unless absolutely necessary”: A qualitative study of delayed care, avoidance of care, and telehealth experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic |
title_fullStr | “I am hesitant to visit the doctor unless absolutely necessary”: A qualitative study of delayed care, avoidance of care, and telehealth experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic |
title_full_unstemmed | “I am hesitant to visit the doctor unless absolutely necessary”: A qualitative study of delayed care, avoidance of care, and telehealth experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic |
title_short | “I am hesitant to visit the doctor unless absolutely necessary”: A qualitative study of delayed care, avoidance of care, and telehealth experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic |
title_sort | “i am hesitant to visit the doctor unless absolutely necessary”: a qualitative study of delayed care, avoidance of care, and telehealth experiences during the covid-19 pandemic |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9370251/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35960102 http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000029439 |
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