Attitudes to telemedicine, and willingness to use in young people

Abstract

The goal of this study is to investigate the willingness of young people in Bulgaria to search and use health information from Internet sources, and the factors that influenced their decision to participate in telemedicine. The survey questions concerned patient appointments, perceived advantages and barriers to telemedicine, and prior use of the Internet for health-related matters. A total of 888 people participated, but we focused on the answers from 683 students from 6 universities in Bulgaria who were surveyed from October 2018 to January 2019. There were 513 female and 170 male respondents. Most of the participants (50%) define themselves with good level of computer literacy and 67% answer that they use a computer every day. 46% of the participants confirm that they search for health information on the Internet whenever they needed such information and 58% search for information on drugs and drug effects. Of those surveyed, only 26% were willing to use telemedicine if the information is secured and 33% totally exclude that as an option.