Telehealth use in rural areas was associated with a higher likelihood of patients utilizing preventive care, according to research in the American Journal of Managed Care.
The sample for the Jan. 6 study, conducted by researchers at payer Elevance Health, included 2,012,290 rural residents after propensity score matching — 1,006,145 nonusers of telemedicine, 535,418 users in 2020, and 730,828 users between 2021 and 2023 — to balance demographic and health characteristics across groups. Telehealth users tended to have higher comorbidity burden and a greater prevalence of anxiety (44% vs 28%) and depression (37% vs 23%) compared with nonusers.
“The use of telemedicine in rural areas was associated with a higher likelihood of utilizing preventive care,” the authors concluded. “The magnitude of this relationship varied depending on underlying health conditions, sex, and region of residence.”
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