Perception about telemedicine services among parents of children with neurodevelopmental disorders in a specialised tertiary centre in Oman

Figures & data

Table 1. Distribution of respondents according to their background characteristics.

Background characteristics	Number	Percent
Total	130	100.0
Gender
Female	39	30.0
Male	91	70.0
Age of child (year)
1–3	27	20.8
4–6	51	39.2
7–9	34	26.2
10+	18	13.8
Mean age (SD)	6.1 (3.0)
Region of residence
Muscat	50	38.5
Al Batina	35	27.0
Al Sharqia	20	15.3
Dhofar	7	5.4
Al Dakhlia	14	10.8
Others	04	3.0
Mother’s age
25–29	23	17.7
30–34	22	16.9
35–39	51	39.2
40+	34	26.2
Mean (SD)	36.2 (6.3)
Father’s age
<35	20	15.4
35–39	45	34.6
40–49	34	26.2
50+	31	23.8
Mean (SD)	40.8 (7.3)
Mother’s education
Primary	18	13.8
Secondary	65	50.0
Higher	47	36.2
Father’s education
Primary	19	14.6
Secondary	60	46.2
Higher	51	39.2
Aware about virtual clinic
Yes	69	53.1
No	61	46.9
Type of virtual interview
Telephone	56	43.1
Video call	74	56.9
Purpose of virtual interview
Diagnosis	54	41.5
Follow up	68	52.3
Intervention	8	6.2
Types of clinics
Neurological	29	22.3
Developmental	101	77.7
Type of clinician
Doctor	122	93.8
Psychologist	8	6.2

Table 3. Percentage distribution of respondents according to their response to the items of difficulties experienced with the telemedicine services.

Items of the reality of difficult experience	Response to the question on items of difficulties experienced
	Yes	No	To some extent
Weak internet service available	29.2	46.2	24.6
Don’t have a computer /laptop	34.6	65.4	0.0
I don’t have smartphone	6.9	93.1	0.00
Absence of direct interaction reduces the effectiveness of the telemedicine services	50.0	25.4	24.6
Conflict in the dates of telemedicine services with schedule	29.2	46.9	23.8
Lack of experience in the dealing with internet technologies and modern means of communications	13.8	73.1	13.1
Telemedicine services do not fully benefit your child	40.8	30.8	28.5
Telemedicine services constitute an additional burden on the parents in terms of preparing and equipping the proper place and equipment	31.5	48.5	20.0
Absence of the awareness about telemedicine services	32.3	46.9	20.8

Table 2. Percentage distribution of respondents according to their response to the items of the reality of the experience of telemedicine service during the pandemic of COVID-19.

Items of the reality of the experience	Response to the question on items of reality of the experiences
	Yes	No	To some extent
Purpose of interview explained before it started	87.7	6.9	5.4
Doctor /psychologist able to gather important information about child	82.3	1.5	16.2
Able to convey child’s complaints and symptoms to the service provider during telemedicine	67.7	15.4	16.9
Information received during the telemedicine appointment help make decisions about next steps in child’s management plan	64.6	10.8	24.6
Applications /programmes used in the interview of high quality and did not distract attention	70	10.8	19.2
Flexibility in scheduling /setting or changing the interview date	68.5	15.4	16.2
Interview take into account the family’s privacy in terms of agreeing to open the camera with the prior approval/permission	80.8	12.3	6.9
Interview achieve the same goal of the scheduled date for the physical appointment	69.2	10.0	20.8
Interview last for appropriate time	84.6	3.8	11.5
Behaviors and challenges that worry about child which can appear during physical appointments were discussed in telemedicine	71.5	14.6	13.8
Telemedicine interview take a shorter time compared to if the in person	64.6	22.3	13.1
Use of the electronic alternative appropriate in the current situation of the pandemic	60.0	20.8	19.2
Telemedicine services were suitable	26.2	43.8	30.0
Would recommend telemedicine services to the others	36.9	34.0	29.1
Would like to participate in future telemedicine visits	42.3	32.3	25.4
Conflict in the dates of telemedicine services with schedule	29.2	46.9	23.8
Lack of experience in the dealing with internet technologies and modern means of communications	13.8	73.1	13.1
Telemedicine services do not fully benefit your child	40.8	30.8	28.5
Mean score of experience items (SD)	10.5 (3.3)
Overall experience	n (%)
Positive	60 (46.2)
Negative	70 (53.8)

Table 4. Percentage of respondents with positive and negative experiences of telemedicine service during the pandemic of COVID-19 according to background characteristics and results of logistic regression analysis showing odds of positive experience of telemedicine services.

Background characteristics	Experience			Adjusted odds ratio (AOR) of positive experiences about telemedicine with 95% CI
	Positive n = 60	Negative n = 70	p-value^‡	AOR	95% CI	p-value
Total	46.2	53.8
Gender			0.701
Male (ref.)	43.6	56.4		1.00
Female	47.3	52.7		1.19	0.42, 3.41	0.743
Age of child (year)			0.158
1–3 (ref.)	29.6	70.4		1.00
4–6	47.1	52.9		1.89	0.34, 10.69	0.468
7–9	58.8	41.2		3.6	1.13, 17.75	0.042
10+ (ref.)	44.4	55.6		2.53	0.52, 12.21	0.112
Region of residence			0.741
Muscat	46.0	54.0		0.91	0.29, 2.89	0.881
Al Batina	48.6	51.4		1.33	0.42, 6.52	0.414
Al Sharqia	52.6	47.4		2.04	0.41, 9.89	0.246
Dhofar	52.1	47.9		1.87	0.24, 7.30	0.743
Al Dhakhlia	35.7	64.3		0.24	0.01, 3.99	0.359
Others	47.0	53.0		1.00
Mother’s age			0.961
25–29	46.8	53.2		0.73	0.11, 4.89	0.752
30–34	40.9	59.1		0.55	0.08, 4.04	0.562
35–39	47.1	52.9		0.94	0.24, 3.74	0.931
40+	47.8	52.2		1.00
Father’s age			0.810
<35	55.0	45.0		1.24	0.12, 6.78	0.673
35–39	42.2	57.8		0.76	0.25, 5.23	0.872
40–49	44.1	55.9		0.87	0.34, 3.54	0.562
50+	46.7	53.3		1.00
Mother’s education			0.642
Primary	55.6	44.4		1.35	0.20, 5.48	0.931
Secondary	46.2	53.8		1.03	0.17, 3.06	0.618
Higher	42.6	57.4		1.00
Father’s education			0.368
Primary	31.6	68.4		0.48	0.24, 9.16	0.667
Secondary	50.0	50.0		1.12	0.31, 4.75	0.766
Higher	47.1	52.9		1.00
Type of virtual interview			0.312
Telephone	41.1	58.9		0.56	0.18, 2.33	0.158
Video call	50.0	50.0		1.00
Purpose of virtual interview			0.034
Diagnosis	59.3	40.7		2.19	0.38, 6.89	0.310
Follow up	36.8	63.2		2.34	0.32,10.15	0.423
Intervention	37.5	62.5		1.00
Types of clinics			<0.001
Neurological	10.3	89.7		1.00
Developmental	56.4	43.6		4.27	3.16, 10.61	0.002
Quality of Internet service			0.029
Strong	55.3	44.7		1.48	1.12, 6.45	0.042
Weak	42.4	57.6		1.00
Access to computer			0.232
Yes	53.3	46.7		1.34	0.12, 4.38	0.431
No	42.4	57.6		1.00
Conflict with timing of telemedicine service	37.0	63.0	0.001
Yes	37.0	63.0		0.44	0.16, 2.22	0.542
No	68.4	31.6		1.00
Lack of experience in internet technologies			0.041
Yes	36.7	63.3		0.38	0.06, 0.87	0.035
No	54.3	45.7		1.00
Consider telemedicine services as a burden			<0.001
Yes	30.2	69.8		0.32	0.35, 4.82	0.046
No	61.2	38.8		1.00
Lack of awareness about telemedicine services			0.012
Yes	34.4	65.6		0.42	0.12, 0.92	0.043
No	56.5	43.5		1.00
Model goodness of fit
Nagelkerke R^2				0.472

‡ p-value relates to chi-square test.

Data availability statement

Data generated and analysed for this study will be available from the corresponding author upon request.