Brief Report:Participant Satisfaction in an Adult Telehealth Education Program Using Interactive Compressed Video Delivery Methods in Rural Arkansas

CONTEXT: Rural Americans have less access than their urban counterparts to health promotion information. PURPOSE: To assess differences in program satisfaction associated with age, gender, ethnicity, community size, and education among participants in an Arkansas adult telehealth education program that utilized interactive video technology. METHODS: A program evaluation instrument was administered to a convenience sample of 2567 people who participated in the program from 1996 through 1999. FINDINGS: The evaluation instrument demonstrated adequate internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alpha = 0.85) and construct validity. Older adults, blacks, American Indians, and participants from smaller rural communities and with a high school degree or less had significantly greater satisfaction (P < .001 to P = .03). CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that socioeconomic and demographic factors can affect satisfaction with telehealth education programs.