Health Care Usage During the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Adoption of Telemedicine: Retrospective Study of Chronic Disease Cohorts.

Publisher: JMIR Publications Country of Publication: Canada NLM ID: 100959882 Publication Model: Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1438-8871 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 14388871 NLM ISO Abbreviation: J Med Internet Res Subsets: MEDLINE

Publication: <2011- > : Toronto : JMIR Publications
Original Publication: [Pittsburgh, PA? : s.n., 1999-

COVID-19*/epidemiology ; Telemedicine*/statistics & numerical data ; Pandemics*; Humans ; Retrospective Studies ; Male ; Chronic Disease ; Female ; Middle Aged ; Aged ; Adult ; Diabetes Mellitus/therapy ; Diabetes Mellitus/epidemiology ; Cohort Studies ; SARS-CoV-2 ; Anxiety/epidemiology ; Depression/epidemiology ; Depression/therapy ; Heart Failure/therapy ; Neoplasms/therapy

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated telehealth adoption across disease cohorts of patients. For many patients, routine medical care was no longer an option, and others chose not to visit medical offices in order to minimize COVID-19 exposure. In this study, we take a comprehensive multidisease approach in studying the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on health care usage and the adoption of telemedicine through the first 12 months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Objective: We studied the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on in-person health care usage and telehealth adoption across chronic diseases to understand differences in telehealth adoption across disease cohorts and patient demographics (such as the Social Vulnerability Index [SVI]).
Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 6 different disease cohorts (anxiety: n=67,578; depression: n=45,570; diabetes: n=81,885; kidney failure: n=29,284; heart failure: n=21,152; and cancer: n=35,460). We used summary statistics to characterize changes in usage and regression analysis to study how patient characteristics relate to in-person health care and telehealth adoption and usage during the first 12 months of the pandemic.
Results: We observed a reduction in in-person health care usage across disease cohorts (ranging from 10% to 24%). For most diseases we study, telehealth appointments offset the reduction in in-person visits. Furthermore, for anxiety and depression, the increase in telehealth usage exceeds the reduction in in-person visits (by up to 5%). We observed that younger patients and men have higher telehealth usage after accounting for other covariates. Patients from higher SVI areas are less likely to use telehealth; however, if they do, they have a higher number of telehealth visits, after accounting for other covariates.
Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic affected health care usage across diseases, and the role of telehealth in replacing in-person visits varies by disease cohort. Understanding these differences can inform current practices and provides opportunities to further guide modalities of in-person and telehealth visits. Critically, further study is needed to understand barriers to telehealth service usage for patients in higher SVI areas. A better understanding of the role of social determinants of health may lead to more support for patients and help individual health care providers improve access to care for patients with chronic conditions.
(©Margrét Vilborg Bjarnadóttir, David Anderson, Kelley M Anderson, Omar Aljwfi, Alina Peluso, Adam Ghannoum, Gayle Balba, Nawar Shara. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (https://www.jmir.org), 03.10.2024.)

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UL1 TR001409 United States TR NCATS NIH HHS

Keywords: COVID-19; cohort study; demographic differences; health care utilization; telehealth; telehealth adaption; telehealth utilization

Date Created: 20241003 Date Completed: 20241003 Latest Revision: 20250930

20250930

PMC11487209

10.2196/54991

39361360