Survey study finds high willingness for video telemedicine among military veterans, indicating digital literacy training could address significant barriers to care.
Key Points
To assess factors associated with patient willingness to use video telemedicine for non-emergent outpatient health issues, mental health care, and specialty visits.
Administered computer-assisted telephone interviews from April to October 2022 to 350 veterans with a recent Veterans Health Administration primary care visit.
Evaluated willingness across three clinical visit types using sample-weighted ordinal logistic regression and thematic analysis of open-ended responses.
Overall, 76.1% of respondents (n = 264) were willing to use video telemedicine for non-emergent health issues, 70.7% (n = 241) for mental health, and 61.6% (n = 212) for specialty care.
In adjusted analyses, willingness was positively associated with wanting telemedicine but lacking knowledge on how to use it for non-emergent care (12.0%; 95% CI, 1.3%–22.8%), mental health (16.6%; 95% CI, 5.3%–28.0%), and specialty care (21.1%; 95% CI, 5.9%–36.4%).