Development of a Questionnaire to Measure the Attitudes of Laypeople, Physicians, and Psychotherapists Toward Telemedicine in Mental Health

Abstract

BackgroundIn the field of psychiatry and psychotherapy, there are now a growing number of Web-based interventions, mobile phone apps, or treatments that are available via remote transmission screen worldwide. Many of these interventions have been shown to be effective in studies but still find little use in everyday therapeutic work. However, it is important that attitude and expectation toward this treatment are generally examined, because these factors have an important effect on the efficacy of the treatment. To measure the general attitude of the users and prescribers toward telemedicine, which may include, for instance, Web-based interventions or interventions through mobile phone apps, there are a small number of extensive tests. The results of studies based on small groups of patients have been published too, but there is no useful short screening tool to give an insight into the general population’s attitude. We have developed a screening instrument that examines such attitude through a few graded questions.ObjectiveThis study aimed to explore the Attitude toward Telemedicine in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy (ATiPP) and to evaluate the results of general population and some subgroups.MethodsIn a three-step process, the questionnaire, which is available in three versions (laypeople, physicians, and psychologists), was developed. Afterwards, it was evaluated by four groups: population-representative laypeople, outpatients in different faculties, physicians, and psychotherapists.ResultsThe results were evaluated from a total of 1554 questionnaires. The sample population included 1000 laypeople, 455 outpatients, 62 physicians, and 37 psychotherapists. The reliability of all three versions of the questionnaire seemed good, as indicated by the Cronbach alpha values of .849 (the laypeople group), .80 (the outpatients’ group), .827 (the physicians’ group), and .855 (the psychotherapists’ group).ConclusionsThe ATiPP was found to be useful and reliable for measuring the attitudes toward the Web-based interventions in psychiatry and psychotherapy and should be used in different studies in this field in the future to evaluate and reflect the attitude of the participants.

Understanding the Intention to Use Telehealth Services in Underserved Hispanic Border Communities: Cross-Sectional Study

“…Future research should also address the development of attitudinal measures toward telehealth that exhibit good psychometric properties. Most studies in the literature, similar to our study, use various sets of statements that reflect the particular research question and setting [ 28 , 58 , 59 ]. Furthermore, it is important to incorporate additional factors such as social influence [ 9 ] and privacy and data security issues [ 60 ] and explore their impact on telehealth acceptance and adoption.…”

Electronic Mental Health as an Option for Egyptian Psychiatry: Cross-Sectional Study

“…Though resistance to change has been a major obstacle to the development of telemedicine and eHealth in Egypt, the coronavirus disease has demonstrated the utility of virtual care, which has been called into action as an emergency response to the crisis [ 33 , 34 ]. The Ministry of Health has designated a special hotline to provide psychological support to Egyptians isolated at home in response to the pandemic [ 14 , 35 ]. The adaptation to the crisis and the positive attitudes reported by the psychiatrists in our survey are promising for the implementation of web-based approaches for therapeutic interventions in Egypt.…”

“…EMH is defined as mental health services and information delivered or enhanced through the internet and related technologies, and it is an expanding field with some core components as follows: psychoeducation, lifestyle mentoring, prevention, and treatment [ 10 - 12 ]. These technologies can help provide quality care to individuals by improving awareness, early assessment, and targeted intervention, as well as help reduce the expenditure of the health care system [ 13 , 14 ]. Similarly, the use of EMH through web-based psychological interventions has been shown to be effective, especially for depression and anxiety [ 15 ].…”

Clinicians' use of and attitudes towards technology to provide and support interventions in child and adolescent mental health services

“…The role of technology to deliver interventions have raised child mental health professionals' concerns about a lack of therapist contact (Meisel et al, 2018;Stallard et al, 2010) and a child mental health professional preference for face-to-face treatment (Musiat et al, 2014). Finally, child mental health professionals' perceptions of the wider role of technology has identified views about the use of technology for prevention (Stallard et al, 2010;Vigerland et al, 2014), an adjunct to face-to-face interventions (Tonn et al, 2017), as well as an effective treatment for a range of disorders (Donovan et al, 2015).…”