Understanding Negative and Positive Feelings About Telerehabilitation in People With Chronic Knee Pain: A Mixed-Methods Study.

To explore (1) initial feelings of people with knee osteoarthritis who are unexpectedly offered telerehabilitation, and (2) if their experiences met their expectations, and their willingness to use telerehabilitation in the future. Mixed-methods study of 122 people with knee osteoarthritis who were randomized to receive physiotherapist-delivered telerehabilitation in a clinical trial. At enrollment in the trial, participants were unaware care would be delivered via telerehabilitation. At completion, quantitative (Likert scales, analyzed descriptively) and qualitative (open-text, underwent content/thematic analysis) questions asked participants about their initial feelings when randomized to telerehabilitation, if experiences met expectations, and willingness to use telerehabilitation in the future. Data were collected between October 2021 to March 2023. At enrollment, 44 (36% of 122) participants initially felt negative toward telerehabilitation (, , , , ), 18 (15%) were neutral, and 60 (49%) felt positive. After experiencing telerehabilitation, 43 (72%) people who were initially positive and 27 (61%) who were initially negative believed telerehabilitation exceeded their expectations (, , , ). Twenty-eight (23% of 122) people were not at all or slightly willing to use telerehabilitation in future (, , , ). One in 2 people were positive about telerehabilitation from the outset, and 6 in 10 people who initially felt negative about telerehabilitation found that their experiences were better than expected. One in 4 people were unwilling to use telerehabilitation in the future, even after they had experienced it. .