Understanding rural‐urban differences in veterans' internet access, use and patient preferences for telemedicine.
Background: The expansion of telemedicine (e.g., telephone or video) in the Veterans Health Administration (VA) raises concerns for health care disparities between rural and urban veterans. Factors impeding telemedicine use (e.g., broadband, digital literacy, age) disproportionally affect rural vete...
| Publicado en: | Journal of Rural Health Vol. 40; no. 3; pp. 438 - 446 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
| Formato: | research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
Wiley-Blackwell
Jun2024
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=177962366&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 177962366 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 0890765X GUO jtl: Journal of Rural Health issn: 0890765X maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Jun2024 vid: 40 iid: 3 pid: 480 pub: Wiley-Blackwell place: Malden, Massachusetts artinfo: ui: 177962366 173464291 177962366 177962366 10.1111/jrh.12805 177962366 ppf: 438 ppct: 8 formats: tig: atl: Understanding rural‐urban differences in veterans' internet access, use and patient preferences for telemedicine. aug: au: O'Shea, Amy M. J. Gibson, Mikayla Merchant, James Rewerts, Kelby Miell, Kelly Kaboli, Peter J. Shimada, Stephanie L. affil: VA Office of Rural Health, Veterans Rural Health Resource Center‐Iowa City (VRHRC‐IC), Iowa City Veterans Affairs Health Care System, Iowa City Iowa,, USA sug: subj: Veterans Psychosocial Factors Rural Population Urban Population Veterans Health Services Internet Access Internet Utilization Telemedicine Utilization Patient Preference Health Services Evaluation Human Male Female Comparative Studies Funding Source Health Services Accessibility United States Department of Veterans Affairs Descriptive Statistics Technology Education Male Female ab: Background: The expansion of telemedicine (e.g., telephone or video) in the Veterans Health Administration (VA) raises concerns for health care disparities between rural and urban veterans. Factors impeding telemedicine use (e.g., broadband, digital literacy, age) disproportionally affect rural veterans. Purpose: To examine veteran‐reported broadband access, internet use, familiarity with, and preferences for telemedicine stratified by residential rurality. Methods: Three hundred fifty veterans with a VA primary care visit in March 2022 completed a 30‐min computer‐assisted telephone interview. The sampling design stratified veterans by residential rurality (i.e., rural or urban) and how primary care was delivered (i.e., in‐person or by video). Counts and weighted percentages are reported. Findings: After accounting for survey weights, 96.2% of respondents had in‐home internet access and 89.5% reported functional connection speeds. However, rural‐ compared to urban‐residing veterans were less likely to experience a telemedicine visit in the past year (74.1% vs. 85.2%; p = 0.02). When comparing telemedicine to in‐person visits, rural versus urban‐residing veterans rated them not as good (45.3% vs. 36.8%), just as good (51.1% vs. 53.1%), or better (3.5% vs. 10.0%) (p = 0.05). To make telemedicine visits easier, veterans, regardless of where they lived, recommended technology training (46.4%), help accessing the internet (26.1%), or provision of an internet‐enabled device (25.9%). Conclusions: Though rural‐residing veterans were less likely to experience a telemedicine visit, the same actionable facilitators to improve telemedicine access were reported regardless of residential rurality. Importantly, technology training was most often recommended. Policy makers, patient advocates, and other stakeholders should consider novel initiatives to provide training resources. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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