Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Oct 9, 2023
Date Accepted: Apr 3, 2024
Perception and acceptance of telemedicine use in healthcare among the general public in China: a web-based cross-sectional survey
ABSTRACT
Background:
The COVID-19 pandemic is bringing about substantial changes in healthcare systems, leading to a significant shift towards telemedicine for the delivery of healthcare services.
Objective:
This study aimed to examine the relationship between perceived usefulness and ease of use of telemedicine services and their association with the behavioral intention to use telemedicine.
Methods:
An anonymous cross-sectional survey was conducted in China. Partial least-squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to determine significant predictors of intention to use telemedicine consultation. Types of illnesses that favored seeking telemedicine consultation, as well as the most preferred platform for conducting telemedicine consultations, were also investigated.
Results:
In total,1006 participants completed the survey. A total of 44.3% (n=446) reported very likely and 49.3% (n=496) reported likely to seek telemedicine consultation. Overall, the majority of participants expressed strong agreement or agreement regarding the perceived usefulness of telemedicine. Likewise, the majority of participants indicated strong agreement or agreement when it came to their perception of the ease of using telemedicine. In the PLS-SEM, perceived usefulness (B = 0.322, p < 0.001) and perceived ease of use (B = 0.118, p = 0.012) were significantly associated with a higher likelihood to seek telemedicine consultation. A considerable number of participants expressed willingness to use telemedicine services for various medical conditions, particularly respiratory (33.8%), skin (31.4%), and musculoskeletal issues (31.4%), while showing less interest in seeking telemedicine consultations for reproductive health (4.4%) and cancer (6.4%). The majority preferred video chat (44.0%) and text chat (31.5%) as their most preferred platforms for telemedicine consultation, while a smaller proportion preferred telephone (19.2%) and email (5.3%).
Conclusions:
Telemedicine has the potential to play a larger role in China's healthcare system. The preferences for certain platforms over others may influence service design and implementation.
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.