Willingness to use telemedicine during COVID-19 among health professionals in a low income country.
Inform Med Unlocked
; 27: 100783, 2021.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1573645
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION:
The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has prompted rapid restructuring of the health-care system in an effort to stop the spread of the pandemic. Thus, telemedicine is more preferable in order to prevent the COVID-19 pandemic when face to face meeting is forbidden, allowing provision of health service over a distance. This study aimed to assess willingness to use telemedicine and factors that will determine their extent of willingness during COIVID-19 among healthcare providers working in south west of Ethiopia.METHODS:
Institutional based cross-sectional study design was applied to assess willingness to use telemedicine among healthcare providers working at public health hospitals in south west of Ethiopia. Self-administered questionnaires were used. We have used Epi-info for data entry and Analysis of Moment Structure (AMOS) for analysis. A structural equation modeling was performed to identify factors associated with willingness to use telemedicine at 95% confidence interval (CI).RESULT:
In this study, less than half of respondents had high willingness to use telemedicine. Ease of use (ß = 0.79, 95% CI [0.72, 0.86], p < 0.01), attitude (ß = 0.91, 95% CI [0.87, 0.95], p < 0.01) and patient-physician relationships (ß = 0.67, 95% CI [0.54, 0.70], p < 0.01) were variables associated with willingness to use telemedicine. Anxiety towards technology (ß = 0.74, 95% CI [0.69, 0.79], p < 0.01) and patient-physician relationships (ß = 0.87, 95% CI [0.81, 0.92], p < 0.01) were determinant factors of attitude to use telemedicine.CONCLUSIONS:
The overall willingness to use telemedicine during COVID-19 in this setting is 46.5%. Addressing the problem related with ease of use, attitude and patient-physician relationships will help to increase the overall willingness to use telemedicine during COVID-19. An attempt to improving patient-physician relationship, provision of technical training for ease of use and working on healthcare providers' attitude will help to improve the willingness to use telemedicine.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Qualitative research
/
Randomized controlled trials
Language:
English
Journal:
Inform Med Unlocked
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
J.imu.2021.100783
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