Telehealth as a Substitute for a Usual Source of Care for Prescription Medications

Authors

  • David Shilane Program in Applied Analytics, School of Professional Studies, Columbia University, New York, New York. USA
  • Ashwathi Nair Program in Applied Analytics, School of Professional Studies, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/ijt.2024.6672

Keywords:

Chronic disease management, Primary care, Telehealth, Usual source of care, Prescription medications, Rural health

Abstract

This study investigates how effectively telehealth utilization (THU) can substitute for a usual source of care (USC) for taking prescription medication using data from the 2020-2022 National Health Interview Survey. We analyzed data for 69,581 patients. Of these, 5,994 patients (8.6%) lacked a USC. THU was 37.3% for patients with a USC and 15.8% for those without. For patients with no USC or THU, 25.4% had taken a prescription medication within 12 months, while patients with THU but no USC had a rate of 75.4%. In essentially all subgroups, telehealth was associated with substantially higher rates of taking prescription medications. Multivariate logistic regression showed that THU was associated with a 7.39-fold increase (95% CI: 6.19-8.84) in the odds of taking a prescription medication.

  

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Published

2025-01-15

How to Cite

Shilane, D., & Nair, A. (2025). Telehealth as a Substitute for a Usual Source of Care for Prescription Medications. International Journal of Telerehabilitation, 16(2). https://doi.org/10.5195/ijt.2024.6672

Issue

Vol. 16 No. 2 (2024)

Section

Telehealth Economics

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Copyright (c) 2024 David Shilane, Ashwathi Nair

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