Population perceptions of health care services provided virtually (telehealth): a cross-sectional study

Background In the era of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, health care systems wish to harness the advantage of distant care provision to transcend barriers to access health care facilities. This study aims to investigate general population perceptions (acceptance, comfort, perceived ease of use and perceived quality of care) toward telehealth. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted using a validated online questionnaire. The questionnaire investigated the general population's familiarity and experience with virtual provision of health care (telehealth) in Kuwait. Descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis were performed. Results A total of 484 responses were received. Of those, 65% (N = 315) showed high acceptance of telehealth of which 73.5% (N = 119) were comfortable using it and 48.2% (N = 78) perceived themselves capable of utilizing its systems. Multivariate analysis showed that participants with moderate or high comfort score and those who perceived equal quality of care received from Virtual Visits (VV) are more likely to accept a virtual call from their health care provider compared to those with low comfort score (odds ratio (OR): 4.148, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.444-11.91, P = 0.008, OR: 20.27, 95% CI: 6.415-64.05, P < 0.0001, OR: 2.585, 95% CI: 1.364-4.896, P < 0.004, respectively). Conclusions Perceptions of telehealth were overall positive, indicating a tendency to accept the implementation of such technology.