In 2022, 43 percent of U.S. adults will use telemedicine

American scientists conducted a cross-sectional study and found that 43 percent of their compatriots who consulted a doctor in 2022 used telemedicine. The publication about this appeared in the journal JAMA Network Open. For her work, Nancy Berkman (Nancy Berkman) from the research institute RTI International with colleagues from other research centers in the United States used data from the national survey HINTS for that year. The analysis included 5,437 adults (this sample size was considered representative of the national population) who were not hospitalized and had seen a doctor at least once in the previous year. They completed questionnaires on paper or electronically. The data were analyzed using multivariate logistic models.

It turned out that 43 percent of the participants preferred telemedicine consultation, even when face-to-face contact with a doctor was available. Of these, 70 percent communicated with the doctor via video, while the rest used audio only. Women, people with chronic conditions, and people with multiple visits were the most likely to use telemedicine services; patients 75 and older, people without internet access, and Midwesterners were the least likely to use telemedicine services. Ethnicity, education level, and income were not significantly affected. The results demonstrate that telemedicine is rapidly increasing in popularity among patients, but is least utilized by people with the greatest barriers to accessing care while having a high need for it, the authors conclude.