ArticleThe Journal of rural health : official journal of the American Rural Health Association and the National Rural Health Care Association2023
Disparities in telehealth access, not willingness to use services, likely explain rural telehealth disparities.
Article in The Journal of rural health : official journal of the American Rural Health Association and the National Rural Health Care Association, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers.
What it found
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The trial behind it
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Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed, 49 citations in OpenAlex.
- Family engagement in a behavioral parenting intervention: A randomized comparison of telehealth versus office-based treatment formats.Journal of consulting and clinical psychology · 2024Trial
- Tele-Oncology in the Post-Pandemic Era: Clinical Integration, Access Disparities and Medico-Legal Accountability.Current oncology reports · 2026Review
- "It's a lifeline": perspectives and experiences of health technology use among HIV care providers in rural Florida.AIDS care · 2026Article
- Rural Health at a Crossroads: How Policymakers Have Failed Rural America and What Can Be Done for a Healthier Tomorrow.The Milbank quarterly · 2026Article
- The impact of telehealth services on healthcare access in rural areas.BMC public health · 2026Review
- Effect of Medicaid Audio-Only Telehealth Coverage Policy on Mental Health Visits in Federally Qualified Health Centers.Health services research · 2026Article
- The feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary outcomes of a brief behavioral parenting group program delivered through telehealth.Child & youth care forum · 2026Article
- Telemedicine adoption in Hungary: insights from two representative population surveys (2021-2024).BMC health services research · 2026Article
- Mental Health Specialist Telemedicine Uptake and Patient Location.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Rural-Urban and Racial-Ethnic Differences in Tele-Behavioral Health Access for Medicaid Beneficiaries.The Journal of rural health : official journal of the American Rural Health Association and the National Rural Health Care Association · 2026Article
- Impact of broadband availability and digital literacy on video telehealth use among cancer patients.NPJ digital medicine · 2026Article
- Using co-design to identify healthcare priorities for patients with incurable head and neck cancer.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- Perceived barriers and facilitators of accessing statutory and non-statutory services, in disadvantaged communities, in England: a co-produced qualitative review.Public health reviews · 2026Review
- Provider-level variation in the delivery of primary care telehealth for the rural Medicare Advantage population.The Journal of rural health : official journal of the American Rural Health Association and the National Rural Health Care Association · 2026Article
- Willingness for video visits for non-emergent health issues, mental health, or specialty visits.Frontiers in digital health · 2026Article
- Challenges Implementing Youth-Focused Evidence-Based Practices in Rural Areas: A Rapid Ethnographic Study.Rural mental health · 2026Article
- Telehealth-delivered multimodal mind-body intervention for mild cognitive impairment: a randomized feasibility trial toward scalable dementia prevention.NPJ dementia · 2026Article
- Extending the reach of palliative care-a double-edged sword: a qualitative study of clinicians' experiences of delivering telehealth in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.BMC palliative care · 2025Article
- Patient factors and modifications to intended chemotherapy for women with Stages I-IIIA breast cancer.International journal of cancer · 2025Article
- Digital Health Technology Infrastructure Challenges to Support Health Equity in the United States: Scoping Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
purposeAlthough telehealth access and utilization have increased during the pandemic, rural and low-income disparities persist. We sought to assess whether access or willingness to use telehealth differed between rural and non-rural and low-income and non-low-income adults and measure the prevalence of perceived barriers.
methodsWe conducted a cross-sectional study using COVID-19's Unequal Racial Burden (CURB) online survey (December 17, 2020-February 17, 2021), which included 2 nationally representative cohorts of rural and low-income Black/African American, Latino, and White adults. Non-rural and non-low-income participants from the main, nationally representative sample were matched for rural versus non-rural and low-income versus non-low-income comparisons. We measured perceived telehealth access, willingness to use telehealth, and perceived telehealth barriers.
findingsRural (38.6% vs 44.9%) and low-income adults (42.0% vs 47.4%) were less likely to report telehealth access, compared to non-rural and non-low-income counterparts. After adjustment, rural adults were still less likely to report telehealth access (adjusted prevalence ratio [aPR] = 0.89, 95% CI = 0.79-0.99); no differences were seen between low-income and non-low-income adults (aPR = 1.02, 95% CI = 0.88-1.17). The majority of adults reported willingness to use telehealth (rural = 78.4%; low-income = 79.0%), with no differences between rural and non-rural (aPR = 0.99, 95% CI = 0.92-1.08) or low-income versus non-low-income (aPR = 1.01, 95% CI = 0.91-1.13). No racial/ethnic differences were observed in willingness to use telehealth. The prevalence of perceived telehealth barriers was low, with the majority reporting no barriers (rural = 57.4%; low-income = 56.9%).
conclusionsLack of access (and awareness of access) is likely a primary driver of disparities in rural telehealth use. Race/ethnicity was not associated with telehealth willingness, suggesting that equal utilization is possible once granted access.
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What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.