Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Jan 5, 2021
Date Accepted: Mar 24, 2021
Date Submitted to PubMed: Mar 26, 2021
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited.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.
Rural telemedicine use before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: A repeated cross-sectional study
ABSTRACT
Background:
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a notable increase in telemedicine adoption. Its impact on telemedicine utilization at a population level in rural and remote settings remains unclear.
Objective:
We aim to evaluate changes in the rate of telemedicine use among rural populations and identify patient characteristics associated with telemedicine use, prior to and during the pandemic.
Methods:
We conducted a repeated cross-sectional study on all rural telemedicine visits monthly and quarterly from January 2012 to June 2020 using administrative data from Ontario, Canada. We compared changes in utilization for residents of rural and urban regions of the province prior to and during the pandemic.
Results:
The rate of telemedicine visits among rural patients significantly increased from 11 visits per 1000 in December 2019 to 147 visits per 1000 in June 2020. A similar but steeper increase was seen among urban patients (7 visits per 1000 to 220 visits per 1000).
Conclusions:
Telemedicine adoption grew in rural and remote areas during the COVID-19 pandemic and this increase was prevalent across various levels of rurality, age groups, and chronic conditions. Sharper increases in telemedicine visit rates were seen among patients residing in comparatively less rural regions.
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