Gauging the Changing Landscape: Telehealth Perceptions among Hispanic Females with Breast Cancer

France Nguyen-Grozavu (), Eunjeong Ko and Andrea Valadez Galindo
Additional contact information
France Nguyen-Grozavu: School of Social Work, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182, USA
Eunjeong Ko: School of Social Work, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182, USA
Andrea Valadez Galindo: School of Social Work, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182, USA

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 3, 1-14

Abstract: During the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth use rapidly grew while its uptake steadily increased in cancer care. Prior research has reported existing racial and ethnic disparities in telehealth, with Hispanics reporting lower rates of use compared to other major racial/ethnic groups. Our study examined the perceived benefits and challenges/disadvantages faced by Hispanic females diagnosed with breast cancer in San Diego County, California. In-depth interviews were conducted with 27 participants, who were mostly Spanish speaking. The recordings of the interviews were transcribed and translated from Spanish to English. Reflexive thematic analyses revealed both potential benefits and challenges of telehealth. The perceived benefits included logistic and financial aspects (such as convenience and time/financial savings), faster access and longer duration spent with clinicians, the availability of family members, and the minimization of COVID-19 risk. The reported challenges/disadvantages of telehealth and the suggested strategies to address them focused on limitations in clinical care, diminished engagement with clinicians, difficulty accessing interpreter services, and technological access and challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected the landscape of how care is provided, with a greater shift to telehealth services. More research is needed to further examine the challenges of telehealth, particularly for groups that are disproportionately affected, to avoid the disruption of patients’ cancer care and to promote a better patient healthcare experience.

Keywords: telehealth; challenges/disadvantages; advantages; cancer; COVID-19; hispanic (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/3/1713/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/3/1713/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:3:p:1713-:d:1039025

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().