Previously submitted to: Journal of Medical Internet Research (no longer under consideration since Aug 14, 2023)
Date Submitted: Jul 12, 2022
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Introducing telemedicine in HIV care in times of COVID-19 pandemic – patients’ perspectives
ABSTRACT
Background:
Until SARS-CoV-2 outbreak telemedicine services in HIV care in Poland were not covered by public health insurance. Therefore experience in this form of healthcare delivery is scarce and its acceptance by patients uncertain.
Objective:
Here we present the results of survey investigating the opinion of HIV positive patients on the first application of telemedicine in HIV care in Poland.
Methods:
Four nongovernmental and non-profit organizations, which support people living with HIV in Poland, participated in the distribution of invitations. The survey consisted of the qualitative module (carried out through online interviews using the Computer-Assisted Web Interview technique) and the quantitative module (20 questions, including five open-type questions and 15 closed-type questions).
Results:
In total 156 respondents provided answers: 22 (14%) answered that they thought that telemedicine had a future; 29 (19%) that it did, but under certain conditions; 26 (16%) that it did not; and 79 (51%) had no opinion. Gender, education and place of residence were associated with specific opinions. Respondents who had negative opinion were more likely to be from rural areas and of lower level of education. Further we have investigated factors associated with not having an opinion finding that primary education increased the odds of it by over five folds (OR=5.37 [2.44 to 11.82], p<0.0001). Factors decreasing the odds of not having an opinion were difficulties in getting a visit (0.35 [0.15 to 0.81], p=0.0147) and access to telemedicine only (0.20 [0.06 to 0.72], p=0.0142).
Conclusions:
Over the half of the respondents answered that they had no opinion on the future of telemedicine in HIV care. Those with opinion had positive attitude, but also provided certain conditions to fulfill. This warrants the necessity of further adaptation of the use telemedicine, as well as to investigate barriers in its availability, in order to ascertain equal access to care. Clinical Trial: N/A
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