Exploring the relationship among user satisfaction, compliance, and clinical outcomes of telemedicine services for glucose control.

BACKGROUND

Although research has shown that telemedicine services for blood glucose control can be useful in managing diabetes, the relationships among user satisfaction, compliance, and clinical outcomes have not been well studied. A positive assessment of telemedicine services can improve user satisfaction, which can increase compliance and improve clinical outcomes. These relationships are validated with actual telemedicine projects for diabetes management.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The assessment of user satisfaction for telemedicine services is composed of the following six variables: usefulness, ease of use, compatibility, facilitating conditions, accessibility, and intimacy. The relationship between user satisfaction and compliance or hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) improvement was analyzed. Data were collected from 81 type 2 diabetic patients who used telemedicine services. We used multiple regression analysis, logistic regression analysis, simple linear regression, and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test to analyze the data.

RESULTS

The user assessments of the telemedicine services were very high, ranging from 5.8 to 6 points. Of the six variables, compatibility, ease of use, intimacy, and usefulness had a positive effect on overall satisfaction (p<0.05). Overall satisfaction and compliance were positively correlated with HbA1c improvement. In addition, income level was also an important variable for overall satisfaction.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results indicate that patient assessments of telemedicine services are important factors for clinical outcome improvement. In addition, higher satisfaction and more frequent self-assessments can improve clinical outcomes.