Accepted for/Published in: Interactive Journal of Medical Research
Date Submitted: May 7, 2022
Date Accepted: Jun 25, 2022
Date Submitted to PubMed: Jun 27, 2022
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Association between COVID-19 and Policy Responses on Telehealth Utilization in Japan: Interrupted Time-Series Analysis
ABSTRACT
Background:
Telehealth using telephones or online communication is being promoted as a policy initiative in several countries. However, there is a lack of research on telehealth utilization in a country such as Japan that offers free access to medical care and regulates telehealth provision—particularly with respect to COVID-19.
Objective:
The present study aimed to clarify telehealth utilization, the characteristics of patients and medical institutions using telehealth, and the changes to telehealth in Japan, in order to support the formulation of policy strategies for telehealth provision.
Methods:
Using a medical administrative claim database of the National Health Insurance and Advanced Elderly Medical Service System n Mie Prefecture, we investigated patients who used telehealth from January 2017 to September 2021. We examined telehealth utilization with respect to both patients and medical institutions, and we determined their characteristics. Using April 2020 as the reference time point for COVID-19, we conducted an interrupted time-series analysis (ITSA) to assess changes in the monthly proportion of telehealth users to beneficiaries.
Results:
The number of telehealth users was 13,618 before the reference time point and 28,853 after. Several disease conditions showed an increase with telehealth utilization. Telehealth consultations were mostly conducted by telephone and for prescriptions. The ITSA results showed a sharp increase in the proportion of telehealth use to beneficiaries after the reference time point (rate ratio, 2.97; 95% confidence interval, 2.14–2.31). However, no apparent change in the trend of increasing or decreasing telehealth use was evident after the reference time point (rate ratio,1.00; 95% confidence interval, 1.00–1.01).
Conclusions:
We observed a sharp increase in telehealth utilization after April 2020, but no change in the trend of telehealth use was evident. We identified changes in the characteristics of patients using telehealth and the providers.
Citation
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