JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Telemedicine delivered from primary care practices became widely available for children during the coronavirus-19 pandemic.

Objective:

Focusing on children with a usual source of care, we examined factors associated with use of primary care telemedicine.

Methods:

In February 2022, we surveyed parents of children ≤17 years old within the AmeriSpeak panel, a probability-based panel representative US households, about their children’s telemedicine use. We first compared sociodemographic factors among respondents who did and did not report a usual source of care for their children. Among those reporting a usual source of care, we used Rao-Scott F-tests to examine factors associated with parent-reported use vs. non-use of primary care telemedicine for their children.

Results:

Of 1206 respondents, 1054 reported a usual source of care for their children. Of these respondents, 28% reported primary care telemedicine visits for their children. Factors associated with primary care telemedicine use included having a child with a chronic medical condition (27% of primary care telemedicine users vs 15% of non-users, P=0.002), metropolitan residence (88% vs 78%, P=0.004), greater internet connectivity concerns (24% vs 16%, P=0.05), and greater health literacy (96% vs 91%, P=0.005).

Conclusions:

In a national sample of respondents with a usual source of care for their children, approximately one-quarter reported use of primary care telemedicine for their children as of 2022. Equitable access to primary care telemedicine may be enhanced by promoting access to primary care, sustaining payment for primary care telemedicine, addressing barriers in non-metropolitan practices, and designing for lower health literacy populations.