Menopause care delivery in the time of COVID-19: evaluating the acceptability of telehealth services for women with early and usual age menopause

Abstract

Objectives

This study aimed to explore women’s and clinician’s experiences and acceptability of telehealth use within a specialized multidisciplinary menopause service during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

In-depth qualitative semi-structured interviews were analyzed via thematic inductive approaches. Telehealth acceptability was guided by the Nonadoption, Abandonment, and Challenges to the Scale-Up, Spread, and Sustainability of Health and Care Technologies (NASSS) framework.

Results

A heterogeneous group of 18 women who had attended the menopause service and six clinicians (gynecologists and endocrinologists) were interviewed. The majority of women and clinicians perceived telehealth as an acceptable way to deliver menopause care. Benefits of telehealth delivery were identified; themes centered around convenience, greater access to care and improved safety. Telehealth challenges included perceived impacts on personalized quality of care, patient-related logistical issues and system/organizational-related issues. A hybrid flexible delivery model combining telehealth and face-to-face care was recommended, following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions. Improvements to support embedding and adaptation of telehealth into routine care were described.

Conclusion

In this study, telehealth was viewed as acceptable, supporting the ongoing delivery of a hybrid service model of telehealth and face-to-face menopause care. The findings provide valuable information to improve the menopause service to meet the needs of women during the ongoing current pandemic and beyond.

摘要

目的：本研究旨在探讨在新冠肺炎大流行期间, 妇女和临床医生在一项专门的多学科更年期服务中采用远程保健的经验和可接受性。

方法：采用主题归纳法对定性半结构化访谈进行深入分析。远程医疗的可接受性是由卫生保健和护理技术(NASSS)框架的不采用、放弃和对扩大、传播和可持续发展的挑战指导。

结果：18名进行过更年期保健的女性和6名临床医生(妇科内分泌科医生)接受了采访。大多数女性和临床医生可接受远程保健作为提供更年期服务的一种方式。远程医疗提供的益处得到肯定；主题围绕便利性、更多地获得保健和更好的安全性。远程医疗的挑战包括对个性化护理质量的感知、与患者相关的协调问题以及与系统/组织相关的问题。随着新冠肺炎的放开, 建议采用远程医疗和面对面护理相结合的混合灵活模式提供保健。对支持将远程保健纳入和适应常规护理的改进进行了描述。

结论：在这项研究中, 远程保健被认为是可以接受的, 支持持续提供远程保健和面对面更年期保健的混合服务模式。研究结果为改善更年期服务以满足当前大流行期间及未来的需要提供了有价值的信息。

Keywords:

• Menopause
• telehealth
• COVID-19
• qualitative research

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Drishti Gelani for her assistance with recruitment and to the women and clinicians for sharing their experiences.

Potential conflict of interest

A. J. Vincent is a member of the Climacteric editorial board. There are no other conflicts of interest.

Source of funding

The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: this work was supported by internal departmental funding.

Author contributions

S.L.K.-O. conducted the qualitative interviews, data analysis and drafted the manuscript. B.G. conducted data analysis and revisions of the manuscript. J.A.B. and A.J.V. conceived the study and contributed to revisions of the manuscript. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript.