Telehealth utilization among adults with cognitive difficulty: Evidence from the National Health Interview Survey,...

Telehealth may expand care access by reducing transportation barriers, yet little is known the extent to which cognitive difficulties impact telehealth usage.

We analyzed cross-sectional data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) from 2020 to 2023. Multivariate logistic regression assessed the association between cognitive difficulty and telehealth utilization, controlling for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, insurance, and year.

Among 72,611 adults (mean age 54.6 years ± 18.5 years, 57.0 % female, 11.1 % African American), telehealth use was higher among individuals with significant cognitive difficulty (51.1 %) than those without (32.7 %) (OR = 2.41, 95 % CI: 2.16-2.69). Age modified this association (interaction p < 0.001), with a weaker effect among adults ≥ 50 (OR = 1.33, 95 % CI: 1.26-1.40) than among younger adults (OR = 1.71, 95 % CI: 1.63-1.80).

Participants with greater cognitive difficulty were more likely to use telehealth, though the association was attenuated in adults > 50 years.