Assessing the Impact of a Telemedicine Program on Caregivers of Children with Complex Chronic Conditions (Preprint)

Abstract

BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic was a paradigm shift in global healthcare. This situation highlighted the role of telemedicine in adapting to the care requirements of pediatric patients and their families by facilitating remote consultations and ensuring continuity of care. OBJECTIVE We aim to establish the usefulness of a telemedicine program for caregivers of complex chronic children METHODS We performed a quasi-experimental pre-post intervention study of a telemedicine program, regarding healthcare system use and caregiver quality of life, and comparing two periods: before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was performed on caregivers of complex chronic children followed in a specialized unit RESULTS 34 families were included. The mean number of visits per year was higher in the pre-intervention period for both primary care consultations (p<0.039) and hospital-specialized medical consultations (p<0.031). The number of emergency room visits per year was lower in the pandemic period compared to the pre-pandemic period (p<0.012). In both groups, an improvement in caregiver quality of life at 12 months was detected (p<0.035). However, the Rosenberg self-esteem scale score of the primary caregiver was significantly lower at three months compared to the baseline (p<0.030) CONCLUSIONS Our study demonstrates that the use of a telemedicine program during the pandemic, resulted in a decrease in scheduled face-to-face care and a reduction in the number of emergency department visits. Regarding the caregiver quality of life, it was worse in those families who had a child affected by a neurological condition or whose child was older when the disease was diagnosed. CLINICALTRIAL This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Malaga in May 2017 (reference: PIN-0287-2016).