Hailu Debela Tsegaye, Melaku Mequannint Sharew, Abebe Solomon Abuhay, Walle Agmasie Damtew, Tilahun Kefyalew Naniye, Gashu Kassahun Dessie
Department of Health Informatics, School of Public Health, Institute of Health, Bule Hora University, Bule Hora, Ethiopia.
Department of Health Informatics, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Institute of Public Health, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia.
Front Digit Health. 2025 Jun 3;7:1469365. doi: 10.3389/fdgth.2025.1469365. eCollection 2025.
The shortage of healthcare professionals, long waiting time for treatment, inadequate transportation, and hard-to-reach geographical locations remained challenging in the healthcare service delivery in resource-limited settings. To overcome these challenges, healthcare providers are looking to use telemedicine technologies as an alternative solution. However, user resistance has consistently been identified as a major obstacle to the successful implementation of telemedicine. Thus, this study aimed to assess acceptance to use telemedicine services and its predictors among healthcare professionals at public hospitals in the North Shewa Zone of Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia.
A cross-sectional study design was employed among a total of 627 healthcare professionals working at public hospitals in the North Shewa Zone from 3 April to 1 May 2023. The study participants were selected using simple random sampling techniques. A questionnaire, which is adapted from the original instrument developed by Venkatesh et al.'s study and several studies regarding the UTAUT model was used. Data were collected using a self-administered structured questionnaire in English version. The descriptive statistics were estimated using the SPSS version 25, and structural equation modeling analysis was employed using AMOS V.21 software.
In this study, 601 (95.85% response rate) study subjects participated. The study has shown that 315 (52.4%) (95% CI: 48.3-56.5) of the participants accepted to use telemedicine in their routine healthcare services. Performance expectancy ( = 0.184, = 0.001), effort expectancy ( = 0.183, < 0.001), facilitating conditions ( = 0.249, < 0.001), and digital literacy ( = 0.403, < 0.001) had a significant positive effect on the acceptance to use telemedicine services. Age was used to moderate facilitating conditions ( = 0.400, < 0.001) and digital literacy ( = 0.598, < 0.001) in relation to acceptance to use telemedicine services.
The healthcare professionals' acceptance to use the offered telemedicine services was promising for the future. Additionally, our research found significant effects between healthcare professionals' acceptance to use telemedicine services with the predictors except social influence. Facilitating conditions and digital literacy with acceptance to use were moderated by age. Thus, the health facility should strengthen its telemedicine technology by raising awareness of its usefulness and ease of use.
在资源有限的环境中提供医疗服务时，医疗保健专业人员短缺、治疗等待时间长、交通不便以及地理位置偏远等问题仍然具有挑战性。为了克服这些挑战，医疗保健提供者希望使用远程医疗技术作为替代解决方案。然而，用户抵触一直被认为是远程医疗成功实施的主要障碍。因此，本研究旨在评估埃塞俄比亚奥罗米亚州北谢瓦区公立医院的医疗保健专业人员对使用远程医疗服务的接受程度及其预测因素。
于2023年4月3日至5月1日在北谢瓦区公立医院工作的627名医疗保健专业人员中采用横断面研究设计。研究参与者采用简单随机抽样技术选取。使用了一份问卷，该问卷改编自Venkatesh等人的研究所开发的原始工具以及关于UTAUT模型的多项研究。数据通过英文版的自填式结构化问卷收集。使用SPSS 25版估计描述性统计数据，并使用AMOS V.21软件进行结构方程模型分析。
本研究中，601名（回复率95.85%）研究对象参与。研究表明，315名（52.4%）（95%置信区间：48.3 - 56.5）参与者接受在其日常医疗服务中使用远程医疗。绩效期望（β = 0.184，p = 0.001）、努力期望（β = 0.183，p < 0.001）、便利条件（β = 0.249，p < 0.001）和数字素养（β = 0.403，p < 0.001）对接受使用远程医疗服务有显著的正向影响。年龄用于调节便利条件（β = 0.400，p < 0.001）和数字素养（β = 0.598，p < 0.001）与接受使用远程医疗服务之间的关系。
医疗保健专业人员对所提供的远程医疗服务的接受程度对未来而言是有前景的。此外，我们的研究发现，除社会影响外，医疗保健专业人员接受使用远程医疗服务与预测因素之间存在显著影响。便利条件和数字素养与接受使用之间的关系受年龄调节。因此，医疗机构应通过提高对其有用性和易用性的认识来加强其远程医疗技术。
