| Literature DB >> 31134477 |
Chen D Wang1, Thiyake Rajaratnam1,2, Benjamin Stall1, Raed Hawa1,3, Sanjeev Sockalingam4,5,6.
Abstract
Telemedicine offers a potential solution for bariatric surgery (BS) aftercare for patients living in rural areas with limited access to healthcare services. This study aimed to compare post-BS appointment adherence, psychosocial, and body mass index (BMI) outcomes in patients that did or did not use telemedicine. In total, 192 (96 telemedicine and 96 non-telemedicine) patients were matched on gender, age, time since surgery, BMI, and travel distance from program. Additional psychosocial and demographic variables including rurality index (RIO) were collected. Telemedicine users had a significantly higher RIO (p < 0.001) than non-telemedicine users. Appointment attendance, BMI, and psychosocial outcomes were not significantly different between the two groups. Therefore, our results suggest that telemedicine could help overcome geographical barriers to provide comparable quality healthcare services to more remote regions.Entities:
Keywords: Adherence; Attrition; Bariatric surgery; Rural; Telemedicine
Mesh:
Year: 2019 PMID: 31134477 DOI: 10.1007/s11695-019-03930-4
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Obes Surg ISSN: 0960-8923 Impact factor: 4.129