IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pdig00/0000610.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Exploring the relationship between telehealth utilization and treatment burden among patients with chronic conditions: A cross-sectional study in Ontario, Canada

Author

Listed:
  • Farah Tahsin
  • Carolyn Steele Gray
  • Jay Shaw
  • Aviv Shachak

Abstract

One in five Canadians lives with one or more chronic conditions. Patients with chronic conditions often experience a high treatment burden because of the work associated with managing care. Telehealth is considered a useful solution to reduce the treatment burden among patients with chronic conditions. However, telehealth can also increase the treatment burden by offloading responsibilities on patients. This cross-sectional study conducted in Ontario, Canada examines the association between telehealth utilization and treatment burden among patients with chronic conditions. This study aimed to explore whether and to what extent, telehealth use is associated with treatment burden among patients with chronic conditions. The secondary objective was to explore which sociodemographic variables are associated with patients’ treatment burden. An online survey was administered to community-dwelling patients with one or more chronic conditions. The Treatment Burden Questionnaire (TBQ-15) was used to measure the patient’s level of treatment burden, and a modified telehealth usage scale was developed and used to measure the frequency of telehealth use. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlations, analyses of variance, and hierarchical linear regression analysis. A total of 75 patients completed the survey. The participants’ mean age was 64 (SD = 18.93) and 79% were female. The average reported treatment burden was 72.15 out of 150 (a higher score indicating a higher level of burden). When adjusted for demographic variables, a higher frequency of telehealth use was associated with experiencing a higher treatment burden, but the association was not statistically significant. Additionally, when adjusted for demographic variables, younger age, and the presence of an unpaid caregiver were positively related to a high treatment burden score. This finding demonstrates that some patient populations are more at risk of experiencing high treatment burden in the context of telehealth use; and hence, may require extra support to utilize telehealth technologies. The study highlights the need for further research to explore how to minimize the treatment burden among individuals with higher healthcare needs.Author summary: Telehealth is considered as a promising solution to support patients with chronic conditions. However, using and adopting telehealth technologies can also increase/alleviate patients’ workload. This workload associated with healthcare use is called treatment burden. Currently, little is known about the relationship between telehealth use and treatment burden. Therefore, we conducted a study on how telehealth can make treatment burdens better or worse for these patients. Through our survey, we found that there is a positive association between high frequency of telehealth use and treatment burden. Our study shows that younger patients and patients without unpaid caregiver experience higher level of burden; and therefore, as a health system, we need to explore how to minimize treatment burden among this patient population through leveraging technologies and social services.

Suggested Citation

  • Farah Tahsin & Carolyn Steele Gray & Jay Shaw & Aviv Shachak, 2024. "Exploring the relationship between telehealth utilization and treatment burden among patients with chronic conditions: A cross-sectional study in Ontario, Canada," PLOS Digital Health, Public Library of Science, vol. 3(10), pages 1-18, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pdig00:0000610
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pdig.0000610
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/digitalhealth/article?id=10.1371/journal.pdig.0000610
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/digitalhealth/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pdig.0000610&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000610?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael Rosbach & John Sahl Andersen, 2017. "Patient-experienced burden of treatment in patients with multimorbidity – A systematic review of qualitative data," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(6), pages 1-18, June.
    2. Adem Sav & Jennifer A. Whitty & Sara S. McMillan & Elizabeth Kendall & Fiona Kelly & Michelle A. King & Amanda J. Wheeler, 2016. "Treatment Burden and Chronic Illness: Who is at Most Risk?," The Patient: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research, Springer;International Academy of Health Preference Research, vol. 9(6), pages 559-569, December.
    3. Hay, David Ian, 1988. "Socioeconomic status and health status: A study of males in the Canada health survey," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 27(12), pages 1317-1325, January.
    4. Martin Pinquart & Silvia Sörensen, 2006. "Gender Differences in Caregiver Stressors, Social Resources, and Health: An Updated Meta-Analysis," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 61(1), pages 33-45.
    5. repec:plo:pmed00:1001473 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:plo:pone00:0245112 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Veenstra, Gerry & Vanzella-Yang, Adam, 2022. "Interactions between parental and personal socioeconomic resources and self-rated health: Adjudicating between the resource substitution and resource multiplication theories," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    3. Marissa M Rurka & J Jill Suitor & Megan Gilligan & Robert T Frase & Zhen Cong, 2023. "How Do Own and Siblings’ Genders Shape Caregivers’ Risk of Perceiving Care-Related Criticism From Siblings?," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 78(3), pages 520-531.
    4. Deanna L. Williamson & Janet E. Fast, 1998. "Poverty Status, Health Behaviours, and Health: Implications for Social Assistance and Health Care Policy," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 24(1), pages 1-25, March.
    5. Young Kyung Do & Edward C. Norton & Sally C. Stearns & Courtney Harold Van Houtven, 2015. "Informal Care and Caregiver's Health," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(2), pages 224-237, February.
    6. Karen Siedlecki & Timothy Salthouse & Shigehiro Oishi & Sheena Jeswani, 2014. "The Relationship Between Social Support and Subjective Well-Being Across Age," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 117(2), pages 561-576, June.
    7. Chiu‐Yueh Hsiao, 2010. "Family demands, social support and caregiver burden in Taiwanese family caregivers living with mental illness: the role of family caregiver gender," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(23‐24), pages 3494-3503, December.
    8. Ángel L. Martín-Román & Alfonso Moral & Sara Pinillos-Franco, 2024. "Are women breaking the glass ceiling? A gendered analysis of the duration of sick leave in Spain," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 107-134, March.
    9. Tokunaga, Mutsumi & Hashimoto, Hideki, 2017. "The socioeconomic within-gender gap in informal caregiving among middle-aged women: Evidence from a Japanese nationwide survey," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 48-53.
    10. Christine Unson & Anuli Njoku & Stanley Bernard & Martin Agbalenyo, 2023. "Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Chronic Stress among Male Caregivers," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(12), pages 1-13, June.
    11. Kelly Bedard & John Dorland & Allan W. Gregory & Mark Rosenberg, 1999. "Standardized Mortality Ratios and Canadian Health-Care Funding," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 25(1), pages 47-64, March.
    12. Andrew Wister & Lun Li & Barbara Mitchell & Christina Wolfson & Jacqueline McMillan & Lauren E Griffith & Susan Kirkland & Parminder Raina & Laura Anderson & Cynthia Balion & Asada Yukiko & Nicole Bas, 2022. "Levels of Depression and Anxiety Among Informal Caregivers During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Study Based on the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging [The psychological impact of COVID-19 pandemic and," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 77(9), pages 1740-1757.
    13. Steven Prus, 2007. "Age, SES, and Health: A Population Level Analysis of Health Inequalities over the Life Course," Social and Economic Dimensions of an Aging Population Research Papers 181, McMaster University.
    14. Peña-Longobardo, L.M. & Rodríguez-Sánchez, B. & Oliva-Moreno, J., 2021. "The impact of widowhood on wellbeing, health, and care use: A longitudinal analysis across Europe," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    15. Steven G. Prus, 2003. "A Life-course Perspective on the Relationship between Socio-economic Status and Health: Testing the Divergence Hypothesis," Social and Economic Dimensions of an Aging Population Research Papers 91, McMaster University.
    16. Lawrence B. Sacco & Stefanie König & Hugo Westerlund & Loretta G. Platts, 2022. "Informal Caregiving and Quality of Life Among Older Adults: Prospective Analyses from the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (SLOSH)," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 160(2), pages 845-866, April.
    17. Joukje Swinkels & Theo van Tilburg & Ellen Verbakel & Marjolein Broese van Groenou, 2019. "Explaining the Gender Gap in the Caregiving Burden of Partner Caregivers," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 74(2), pages 309-317.
    18. Rebecca E Lacey & Anne McMunn & Elizabeth Webb, 2018. "Informal caregiving and markers of adiposity in the UK Household Longitudinal Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(7), pages 1-15, July.
    19. Luo, Yanan & Yuan, Kexin & Li, Yuxiao & Liu, Yating & Pan, Yao, 2024. "The “spillover effect” of long-term care insurance in China on spouses’ health and well-being," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 340(C).
    20. Mizuno, Yuki & Hikichi, Hiroyuki & Noguchi, Masayuki & Kawachi, Ichiro & Takao, Soshi, 2019. "Reciprocity of social support is associated with psychological distress and suicidal ideation in older Japanese people: A population-based study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 230(C), pages 131-137.
    21. Penkunas, Michael James & Eom, Kirsten Yuna & Chan, Angelique Wei-Ming, 2017. "Classification trees for identifying non-use of community-based long-term care services among older adults," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(10), pages 1093-1099.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pdig00:0000610. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: digitalhealth (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/digitalhealth .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.