Telehealth, medical decisions and new health inequality in China.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The widespread of telehealth has not only improved medical service accessibility and convenience, and has also played an active role in the COVID-19 Epidemic. This suggests that telehealth is becoming increasingly important in both normality and emergency. It is therefore essential to evaluate the use of the technology and its impact on the healthcare system.

Objective

This paper studied the use of telehealth in China, the socio-demographic characteristics of users, its impact on patients' choice of first-visit, and potential health inequalities.

Methods

We obtained 14,944 valid questionnaires from a multistage stratified sample of 41 cities in the Yangtze River Delta, China, and multinomial logit was mainly used.

Results

The utilization rate of tele

SUBMITTER: Xu Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11866627 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature