Fleischer Anne, Lowman Joneen, Strader Kristen
University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA.
University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA.
J Prim Care Community Health. 2025 Jan-Dec;16:21501319251320180. doi: 10.1177/21501319251320180.
INTRODUCTION/OBJECTIVES: As healthcare embraces telehealth, a need exists to understand factors that promote older adults' telehealth usage, including the influence of age-related sensory impairments. The objective of this study was to describe older adults' perceptions of telehealth and factors they considered before using telehealth within the framework of The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT).
This descriptive qualitative study collected data through semi-structured interviews. Twenty-four older adults were randomly selected from a pool of 103 participants who completed the initial UTAUT survey study. Individual interviews were conducted by telephone. Reflective thematic analysis was used to identify themes within the UTAUT construct that influence older adults' use of telehealth.
Older adults identified preparedness, receptiveness, and willingness to use telehealth as important overarching factors to consider when using telehealth. These are connected to the UTAUT constructs: facilitating conditions, social influence, effort expectancy, and performance expectancy.
This study supports UTAUT as an appropriate framework for assessing telehealth readiness and predicting behavioral intention to use telehealth. Our findings provide limited evidence that sensory impairments do not impact telehealth readiness unless the individual lacks appropriate adaptations.
引言/目的：随着医疗保健领域采用远程医疗，有必要了解促进老年人使用远程医疗的因素，包括与年龄相关的感官障碍的影响。本研究的目的是在技术接受与使用统一理论（UTAUT）的框架内，描述老年人对远程医疗的看法以及他们在使用远程医疗之前考虑的因素。
这项描述性定性研究通过半结构化访谈收集数据。从103名完成初始UTAUT调查研究的参与者中随机选择24名老年人。通过电话进行个人访谈。采用反思性主题分析来确定UTAUT结构中影响老年人使用远程医疗的主题。
老年人认为准备情况、接受程度和使用远程医疗的意愿是使用远程医疗时需要考虑的重要总体因素。这些与UTAUT结构相关：便利条件、社会影响、期望努力和期望绩效。
本研究支持UTAUT作为评估远程医疗准备情况和预测使用远程医疗行为意图的适当框架。我们的研究结果提供了有限的证据，表明除非个体缺乏适当的适应性措施，感官障碍不会影响远程医疗准备情况。
