A closer look at dementia patients’ barriers to telemedicine utilization during the COVID-19 pandemic
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Siddig Fageir 1 * , Omer Osman 2 , Clifton Addison 3
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1 Department of Social Sciences, Alcorn State University, Lorman, MS, USA2 Department of Natural Sciences and Environmental Health, Mississippi Valley State University, Itta Bena, MS, USA3 Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Jackson State University, Jackson, MS, USA* Corresponding Author

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, dementia patients faced reduced mental health support, more social isolation, and higher rates of depression. To assist, telemedicine emerged as a suitable alternative to physical physician consultations. However, the use of telemedicine for dementia care was impacted by numerous factors, including high costs, lack of suitable hardware, poor internet connectivity, and sensory impairment of the patient. This article is an attempt to analyze the use of telemedicine for dementia care during the COVID-19 pandemic and identify barriers to its usage from caregivers’ perspectives. The analysis focused on four identified categories of barriers related to technology, participant abilities, participant attitudes, and costs. The findings demonstrated that lack of suitable technology and digital literacy were major barriers to the adoption of telemedicine in dementia care.

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EUR J ENV PUBLIC HLT, 2023, Volume 7, Issue 4, Article No: em0146

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejeph/13408

Publication date: 18 Jun 2023

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