Video consultation in general practice during COVID-19: a register-based study in Denmark

Ulrik Bak Kirk, Claus Høstrup Vestergaard, Bodil Hammer Bech, Morten Bondo Christensen, Per Kallestrup, Linda Huibers

Keywords: General practice, COVID-19, telemedicine, video consultation,

Introduction:

During the COVID-19 pandemic, general practices in Denmark rapidly introduced video consultations (VCs) to prevent contamination. This study aimed at studying the use of VCs in daytime general practice by describing the rate of VCs, and the patient characteristics associated with having VCs.

Method:

We performed a register-based study of consultations in daytime general practice in Denmark, including all consultations in daytime general practice from 1 January 2019 to 30 November 2021. We calculated the rate of video use and categorised the general practices into no, low, and high use. Logistic regression was used to calculate adjusted odds ratios (aOR) for having a VC for different patient characteristics when contacting a video-using practice, stratified for low- and high-using practices.

Results:

A total of 30,148,478 eligible consultations were conducted during the pandemic period. VCs were used mostly during the early-stage pandemic period, declining to about 2% of all clinic consultations in the late-stage period. Patients having more VCs were young, had a long education, were employed, and living in big cities. In low-using practices, native Danes and western immigrants had higher odds of receiving a VC than non-western immigrants, and patients with ≥2 co-morbidities had lower odds than those without co-morbidities.

Conclusions:

Patients with low age, long education, or employment had higher odds of a VC, while patients with high age and retired patients had lower odds. This difference in the access to VCs warrants further attention.

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