Rural–Urban Differences in Telehealth Utilization and Delayed Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Purpose:

Use of telehealth among older adults increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, but patterns and correlates of its use are poorly understood. The present study uses a representative sample of Medicare beneficiaries to examine rural–urban differences in telehealth utilization during the pandemic and to investigate the associations between the number and type of telehealth services utilized and delayed in-person care.

Methods:

The study sample (N = 3,257) came from Round 10 of the National Health and Aging Trends Study. Telehealth was measured in three modalities: phone calls, e-mails or portal messages, and video calls. Multivariable Poisson and logistic regressions were performed to test the study aims, adjusting for sociodemographic and health controls. Analytic weights and survey design factors were incorporated to generate population estimates.

Findings:

Results show that rurality is associated with lower rates (incidence rate ratio = 0.78, p < 0.001) and lower odds of telehealth use compared with urban older adults. Specifically, rural older adults were less likely to use e-mail or portal messages (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 0.43, p < 0.001) and video calls (AOR = 0.57, p = 0.004) to communicate with their usual health care provider. Use of any 2 forms of telehealth was associated with greatest increased odds of delayed in-person care among rural and urban populations during the pandemic.

Conclusions:

Future efforts are needed to expand the utilization of e-mail/portal messages and video call telehealth services among rural older adults. Telehealth may be an important mechanism to support care continuity during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic for both urban and rural older adults when in-person modalities of care are not feasible.