ABSTRACT
Studies have shown that virtual clinics enjoyed high use and high patient satisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, virtual clinics are expected to be the new normal mode of receiving care after the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to assess public awareness and use of virtual clinics following the pandemic and identify factors associated with virtual clinic use. METHODS: A cross-sectional design was employed in which data were collected via a structured online questionnaire based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) domains: perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and social influence. Participants were selected based on the non-probability sampling of convenience. Univariate, bivariate, and binary logistic regression models were used for analysis. RESULTS: A total of 405 responses were received; of those, 286 (70.6%) were aware of the existence of virtual clinics and 99 (34.6%) were post-pandemic users. Among users, 50% used virtual clinics more than two times, 72% used virtual clinics to seek care for themselves, with the vast majority using it via voice calls (83.8%), and for visits to the family medicine clinic (55%). Young adults, females, single adults, those with a higher level of education, the employed, and those with lower income were more likely to use virtual clinics (p < 0.05). The logistic regression model showed that 20% of the variation in virtual clinic use was explained by perceived usefulness and perceived use (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: This study showed high awareness of virtual clinics among the population following the COVID-19 pandemic, with one-third being active users. Age, gender, marital status, education, income, employment status, perceived usefulness, and ease of use are associated with virtual clinics' awareness and use. Considering those factors is important when planning for sustained use of e-health and virtual care.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 global pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection, warranted attention for whether it has unique manifestations in children. Children tend to develop less severe disease with a small percentage present with clinical manifestations of paediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome and have poor prognosis. We studied the characteristics of COVID-19 in children requiring hospitalisation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and assessed the clinical presentation and the risk factors for mortality, morbidity, and paediatric intensive care (PICU) admission. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective analysis of COVID-19 patients under 15 years hospitalised at three tertiary academic hospitals between 1 March and 30 June 2020. RESULTS: Eighty-eight children were enrolled (>20% were infants). Seven (8%) were in critical condition and required PICU admission, and 4 (4.5%) died of which 3 met the full diagnostic criteria of multi-system inflammatory syndrome and had a high Paediatric Risk of Mortality (PRISM) score at the time of admission. The initial polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test result was positive for COVID-19 in most patients (97.7%), and the remaining two patients had positive result in the repeated confirmatory test. In a subset of patients (20 subjects), repeated PCR testing was performed until conversion to negative result, and the average duration for conversion was 8 (95% CI: 5.2-10.5) days Children requiring PICU admission presented with signs of respiratory distress, dehydration, and heart failure. Most had fever (71.4%) and tonsillitis; 61.4% were discharged within 7 days of hospitalisation. Risk factors for mortality included skin rash, hypotension, hypoxia, signs of heart failure, chest radiograph suggestive of acute respiratory distress syndrome, anaemia, leucocytosis, hypernatraemia, abnormal liver enzymes, and high troponin I, and risk factors for prolonged hospitalisation (>7 days) included the presence of comorbidities, leucopaenia, hyponatraemia, and elevated C-reactive protein. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of hospitalised children had a brief febrile illness and made a full recovery, but a minority had severe disease.