Background Treatment burden refers to the healthcare-imposed workload on patients and their support network. The existing literature lacks sufficient information on how health technologies influence patients’ experiences of treatment burden. This qualitative interpretive study addresses this gap by exploring the perceived experience of treatment burden in managing chronic conditions among patients and their caregivers. A subquestion examines the role of structural factors and telehealth technologies in this experience. Methods 18 semistructured interviews were conducted with patients (n=12) from Community Health Centres and community residents (n=6) in Ontario, Canada, via Zoom or telephone. Data were analysed using a rapid qualitative analysis approach through an interpretive descriptive lens, guided by the cumulative complexity model and Sav et al ’s treatment burden framework. Results Five themes emerged: (1) patients’ and caregivers’ face multiple types of treatment burden; (2) support networks and socioeconomic resources influence patients’ capacity to shoulder burden; (3) treatment burden disrupts patients’ lives, leading to non-adherence; (4) chronic conditions cause social, occupational and identity-related disruptions and (5) telehealth technologies alleviate travel burdens and facilitate access to virtual services, but show limitations in providing culturally and geographically appropriate support. The study identifies structural barriers, access to technology and the presence of chronic conditions as significant factors influencing patients’ experienced burden and capacity. Conclusion As the health system reallocates complex responsibilities to patients and caregivers, this study underscores the need to enhance patient capacity through social services and technology-enabled care models. This study advances understanding of treatment burden by identifying care coordination and information overload as distinct burden types and by demonstrating how telehealth’s benefits are unevenly distributed based on cultural, geographical and socioeconomic contexts.
Tahsin et al. (Wed,) studied this question.