Cargando…

Factors Associated With Telemedicine Use Among Patients With Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Disease: Secondary Analysis of Data From a German Nationwide Survey

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have demonstrated telemedicine (TM) to be an effective tool to complement rheumatology care and address workforce shortage. With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, TM experienced a massive upswing. A previous study revealed that physicians’ willingness to use TM and...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Muehlensiepen, Felix, Petit, Pascal, Knitza, Johannes, Welcker, Martin, Vuillerme, Nicolas
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: JMIR Publications 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9919449/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36705950
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/40912
_version_ 1784886827765727232
author Muehlensiepen, Felix
Petit, Pascal
Knitza, Johannes
Welcker, Martin
Vuillerme, Nicolas
author_facet Muehlensiepen, Felix
Petit, Pascal
Knitza, Johannes
Welcker, Martin
Vuillerme, Nicolas
author_sort Muehlensiepen, Felix
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Previous studies have demonstrated telemedicine (TM) to be an effective tool to complement rheumatology care and address workforce shortage. With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, TM experienced a massive upswing. A previous study revealed that physicians’ willingness to use TM and actual use of TM are closely connected to their knowledge of TM. However, it remains unclear which factors are associated with patients’ motivation to use TM. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to identify the factors that determine patients’ willingness to try TM (TM try) and their wish that their rheumatologists offer TM services (TM wish). METHODS: We conducted a secondary analysis of data from a German nationwide cross-sectional survey among patients with rheumatic and musculoskeletal disease (RMD). Bayesian univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were applied to the data to determine which factors were associated with TM try and TM wish. The predictor variables (covariates) studied individually included sociodemographic factors (eg, age and sex) and health characteristics (eg, disease type and health status). All the variables positively or negatively associated with TM try or TM wish in the univariate analyses were then considered for the Bayesian model averaging analysis after a selection based on the variance inflation factor (≤2.5). All the analyses were stratified by sex. RESULTS: Of the total 102 variables, 59 (57.8%) and 45 (44.1%) variables were found to be positively or negatively associated (region of practical equivalence ≤5%) with TM try and TM wish, respectively. A total of 16 and 8 determinant factors were identified for TM try and TM wish, respectively. Wishing that TM services were offered by rheumatologists, having internet access at home, residing 5 to 10 km away from the general practitioner’s office, owning an electronic device, and being aged 40 to 60 years were among the factors positively associated with TM try and TM wish. By contrast, not yet being diagnosed with an RMD, having no prior knowledge of TM, having a bad health status, living in a rural area, not documenting one’s health status, not owning an electronic device, and being aged 60 to 80 years were negatively associated with TM try and TM wish. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that health status, knowledge, age, and access to technical equipment and infrastructure influence the motivation of patients with RMD to use telehealth services. In particular, older patients with RMD living in rural areas, who could likely benefit from using TM, are currently not motivated to use TM and seem to need additional TM support.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9919449
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2023
publisher JMIR Publications
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-99194492023-02-12 Factors Associated With Telemedicine Use Among Patients With Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Disease: Secondary Analysis of Data From a German Nationwide Survey Muehlensiepen, Felix Petit, Pascal Knitza, Johannes Welcker, Martin Vuillerme, Nicolas J Med Internet Res Original Paper BACKGROUND: Previous studies have demonstrated telemedicine (TM) to be an effective tool to complement rheumatology care and address workforce shortage. With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, TM experienced a massive upswing. A previous study revealed that physicians’ willingness to use TM and actual use of TM are closely connected to their knowledge of TM. However, it remains unclear which factors are associated with patients’ motivation to use TM. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to identify the factors that determine patients’ willingness to try TM (TM try) and their wish that their rheumatologists offer TM services (TM wish). METHODS: We conducted a secondary analysis of data from a German nationwide cross-sectional survey among patients with rheumatic and musculoskeletal disease (RMD). Bayesian univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were applied to the data to determine which factors were associated with TM try and TM wish. The predictor variables (covariates) studied individually included sociodemographic factors (eg, age and sex) and health characteristics (eg, disease type and health status). All the variables positively or negatively associated with TM try or TM wish in the univariate analyses were then considered for the Bayesian model averaging analysis after a selection based on the variance inflation factor (≤2.5). All the analyses were stratified by sex. RESULTS: Of the total 102 variables, 59 (57.8%) and 45 (44.1%) variables were found to be positively or negatively associated (region of practical equivalence ≤5%) with TM try and TM wish, respectively. A total of 16 and 8 determinant factors were identified for TM try and TM wish, respectively. Wishing that TM services were offered by rheumatologists, having internet access at home, residing 5 to 10 km away from the general practitioner’s office, owning an electronic device, and being aged 40 to 60 years were among the factors positively associated with TM try and TM wish. By contrast, not yet being diagnosed with an RMD, having no prior knowledge of TM, having a bad health status, living in a rural area, not documenting one’s health status, not owning an electronic device, and being aged 60 to 80 years were negatively associated with TM try and TM wish. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that health status, knowledge, age, and access to technical equipment and infrastructure influence the motivation of patients with RMD to use telehealth services. In particular, older patients with RMD living in rural areas, who could likely benefit from using TM, are currently not motivated to use TM and seem to need additional TM support. JMIR Publications 2023-01-27 /pmc/articles/PMC9919449/ /pubmed/36705950 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/40912 Text en ©Felix Muehlensiepen, Pascal Petit, Johannes Knitza, Martin Welcker, Nicolas Vuillerme. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (https://www.jmir.org), 27.01.2023. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://www.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
spellingShingle Original Paper
Muehlensiepen, Felix
Petit, Pascal
Knitza, Johannes
Welcker, Martin
Vuillerme, Nicolas
Factors Associated With Telemedicine Use Among Patients With Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Disease: Secondary Analysis of Data From a German Nationwide Survey
title Factors Associated With Telemedicine Use Among Patients With Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Disease: Secondary Analysis of Data From a German Nationwide Survey
title_full Factors Associated With Telemedicine Use Among Patients With Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Disease: Secondary Analysis of Data From a German Nationwide Survey
title_fullStr Factors Associated With Telemedicine Use Among Patients With Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Disease: Secondary Analysis of Data From a German Nationwide Survey
title_full_unstemmed Factors Associated With Telemedicine Use Among Patients With Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Disease: Secondary Analysis of Data From a German Nationwide Survey
title_short Factors Associated With Telemedicine Use Among Patients With Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Disease: Secondary Analysis of Data From a German Nationwide Survey
title_sort factors associated with telemedicine use among patients with rheumatic and musculoskeletal disease: secondary analysis of data from a german nationwide survey
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9919449/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36705950
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/40912
work_keys_str_mv AT muehlensiepenfelix factorsassociatedwithtelemedicineuseamongpatientswithrheumaticandmusculoskeletaldiseasesecondaryanalysisofdatafromagermannationwidesurvey
AT petitpascal factorsassociatedwithtelemedicineuseamongpatientswithrheumaticandmusculoskeletaldiseasesecondaryanalysisofdatafromagermannationwidesurvey
AT knitzajohannes factorsassociatedwithtelemedicineuseamongpatientswithrheumaticandmusculoskeletaldiseasesecondaryanalysisofdatafromagermannationwidesurvey
AT welckermartin factorsassociatedwithtelemedicineuseamongpatientswithrheumaticandmusculoskeletaldiseasesecondaryanalysisofdatafromagermannationwidesurvey
AT vuillermenicolas factorsassociatedwithtelemedicineuseamongpatientswithrheumaticandmusculoskeletaldiseasesecondaryanalysisofdatafromagermannationwidesurvey