Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Feb 15, 2022
Date Accepted: Jul 14, 2022
Date Submitted to PubMed: Jul 18, 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Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited.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.
Virtual Care Prior to and During COVID-19: A Cross-Sectional Survey of Rural and Urban Adults
ABSTRACT
Background:
The COVID-19 pandemic has driven a massive shift to virtual care to reduce person-to-person contact, though rural-urban differences are relatively unexplored.
Objective:
The two-fold purpose of the present study was to examine rural and urban virtual care access, use, and satisfaction during the pandemic and to identify any unmet needs.
Methods:
A cross-sectional online survey exploring virtual care among rural and urban adults in summer 2021 using a combination of fixed and open-ended response options.
Results:
Overall, 501 (75% female; Age 19-86 years; 47% rural-living) Western Canadians completed the survey. Virtual care use was high among both rural (72%) and urban (71%) participants, with over half reporting having only started to use virtual care since the pandemic. The self-reported need for mental health programs and services increased during the pandemic compared to prior for both rural and urban participants. Among virtual care users, interest in its continuation was high. Our analysis also shows that internet quality (all Ps<.05) and eHealth literacy (all Ps<.001) were positively associated with participants’ perceptions of virtual care usefulness, ease of use, and satisfaction with no rural/urban differences. Rural participants were less likely to have used video in communicating with doctors/healthcare providers, compared to urban participants (P<.001). When describing unmet needs, participants described: 1) lack of access to care; 2) limited health promotion and prevention options; and 3) lack of mental health service options.
Conclusions:
The increased demand for and use of virtual care may reflect a lack of alternatives due to limited in-person services during the COVID-19 pandemic, so a balance between virtual care and in-person care is important to consider post-pandemic. Further, ensuring availability of high-speed internet and education to support patients will be important for providing accessible and effective virtual care, especially for rural residents. Clinical Trial: Not Applicable
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.