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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Digital Public Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1542974
This article is part of the Research Topic Assistive Technologies in Aging and Disability View all 3 articles
Telehealth perceptions and associated factors among elderly individuals with chronic conditions in Saudi Arabia: A comparative study of users and nonusers
Provisionally accepted
Abdulkarim M. Meraya 1*
Amani Khardali 1
Sarfaraz Ahmad 1 Ahmed Z. Hoshaibari 2 Atheer A Alameer 2 Raed Y Jaafari 2
Hilal Thaibah 1 Moaddey Alfarhan 1 Mamoon H Syed 1- 1 Department of Clinical Practice, Faculty of Pharmacy, Jazan University, Jizan, Jizan, Saudi Arabia
- 2 Faculty of Pharmacy, Jazan University, Jizan, Jizan, Saudi Arabia
Background: Telehealth is a promising approach for healthcare delivery that uses telecommunication technologies to enhance accessibility by providing remote health services.This study aimed to identify psychosocial factors that best predict behavioral intention to use telehealth/telemedicine, as mediated by attitude towards use, among elderly individuals with chronic conditions in the Jazan region of Saudi Arabia, and to compare users and non-users.Methods: Participants were aged 60 years or above, residing in Jazan, and presenting with at least one chronic condition. This study used a quantitative research approach with a crosssectional questionnaire survey. We stratified all analyses by telehealth use status (users or nonusers).Results: Our study sample comprised 466 participants aged 60 or above with at least one chronic condition. The most prevalent condition was diabetes (29%), followed by arthritis (23%).Among the telehealth users (n = 256), a high percentage (42%) reported that telehealth was better than in-person appointments. Among telehealth users, we found that perceived usefulness [(users: β = 0.501; p < 0.001) (non-users: β = 0.441; p < 0.001)] and facilitating conditions [(users: β = 0.768; p=0.001) (non-users: β = 0.807; p < 0.001)] positively affected attitudes to using telehealth. Telehealth users and non-users reported dislike or fear of the service and unavailability of appointments as the most important barriers to using telehealth services.The results of this study are important for designing new telehealth applications, especially for the elderly in Saudi Arabia. Designers and developers must understand that the attributes and capabilities of telehealth applications should be simple and user-friendly to encourage the elderly to increase their intention to use telehealth.
Keywords: telehealth, Technology acceptance model, Perceived ease of use, Elderly, Chronic conditions
Received: 10 Dec 2024; Accepted: 24 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Meraya, Khardali, Ahmad, Hoshaibari, Alameer, Jaafari, Thaibah, Alfarhan and Syed. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Abdulkarim M. Meraya, Department of Clinical Practice, Faculty of Pharmacy, Jazan University, Jizan, 45 142, Jizan, Saudi Arabia
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