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Designing Telemedicine for Older Adults with Multimorbidity: A Qualitative Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Telemedicine is a potential platform for caring for older adults with multimorbidity. There is a need to explore the perceptions of telemedicine among older adults with multimorbidity to tailor it to the needs of older adults with multiple chronic conditions.
Objective:
To explore the perceptions of telemedicine among older patients with multimorbidity.
Methods:
A qualitative study was conducted using semi-structured interviews. The interview questions examined older adults’ perspectives of telemedicine, including their expectations of telemedicine services and the factors that affect its usage. Thematic analysis was used for analysis by NVivo version 12. The study was reported using the SRQR guidelines.
Results:
Twenty-nine patients with multimorbidity, 21 female and 8 male patients with a mean age of 69 ± 10.39 were included. Four themes and seven subthemes emerged. Theme 1: Perceived benefit of telemedicine among older adults with multimorbidities; Theme 2: Appropriate use of telemedicine for multimorbid care; Theme 3: Telemedicine system catering to the needs of older patients; Theme 4: Respect patients’ refusal from using telemedicine.
Conclusions:
Telemedicine for older adults with multimorbidity should focus on those with stable conditions. This can help increase access to care for those requiring continuous condition monitoring. A structured telemedicine program and patient-centered services can help increase patient acceptance of telemedicine. However, healthcare providers must accept the limitations of elderly patients that may prevent them from receiving telemedicine services.
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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.