Gauging Local Interest in Telemedicine Visits: Are Online Surveys Enough?

Telemedicine use surged during COVID-19, and a significant amount of recent research has relied solely on online surveys to assess patient perceptions. However, these surveys may be biased since they require an internet connection and digital literacy skills. We compare local perceptions of telemedicine visits in rural areas across two methods of data collection: online-only vs. paper surveys. We collected 100 paper and 108 online surveys in two rural counties with a total population of 10,000. The results show that significant differences exist in the demographics of people completing each type of survey and in the perceptions of telemedicine, with paper-based respondents generally demonstrating a higher degree of confidence in telemedicine. Ordered logistic regressions controlling for potentially influential underlying demographic characteristics (income, hours worked, and presence of children) show that paper-based respondents tend to have higher opinions of telemedicine, but that overall levels of comfort are similar across survey types.