Assessing patients' attitudes towards telepsychotherapy: The development of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology‐patient version

Abstract

This study presents the development of a self‐report measure of patients' attitudes towards telepsychotherapy. The measure is based on a well‐researched model of attitudes towards using technology, the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) framework (Venkatesh et al., 2003). We examined the psychometric properties of the UTAUT adapted for psychotherapy patients (UTAUT‐P) in a sample of 107 psychotherapy patients who received telepsychotherapy via video conferencing during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Exploratory factor analysis resulted in a 14‐item UTAUT‐P version, with four factors—(1) Therapy Quality Expectancy, (2) Convenience, (3) Ease of Use, and (4) Pressure from Others—and was further corroborated by the results of the confirmatory factor analysis. Our results indicated the four‐factor model's adequate fit to the data and demonstrated adequate construct validity and reliability of the UTAUT‐P factors. All factors, except for Ease of Use, were significantly and positively associated with intention to use telepsychotherapy technology in the future. This study complements the research on therapists' attitudes towards telepsychotherapy, based on the therapist version of the UTAUT. The developed 14‐item UTAUT‐P might be a helpful, brief self‐report tool in clinical practice, which might give the patient a voice around the potential use of telepsychotherapy technology in their care. This initial application of the UTAUT‐P patients during the COVID‐19 pandemic offers a building block for future research on patients' attitudes towards telepsychotherapy, outside the context of a forced transition.

Telemedicine Adoption for Healthcare Delivery: A Systematic Review

“…[28]- [31], and the other 5 studies on telemonitoring [32]- [36]. A total of 3 studies were dedicated to remote mental health services -Telepsychotherapy [37]- [39], while 4 studies centered around telerehabilitation [40], [41], and tele palliative care [42], [43], each with 2 studies. The remaining studies were designed for teleneurology [44], teledermoscopy [45], teleconsultations [46], and group-based telemedicine [47], each with one study.…”

“…5 summarizes the individual factors and analyzes their frequencies based on the number of using them in the included studies from both providers' and patients' perspectives. The findings of the analysis showed that social influence is the most important factor influencing patients which was repeated 6 times [28], [35], [37], [40], [45], [46]. The second most important factor is attitude, which was repeated 3 times [36], [37], [45], followed by personal innovativeness [36], [47], self-efficacy [34], [36], awareness [28], [46], and habit [30], [40], each of which was repeated 2 times.…”

“…The findings of the analysis showed that social influence is the most important factor influencing patients which was repeated 6 times [28], [35], [37], [40], [45], [46]. The second most important factor is attitude, which was repeated 3 times [36], [37], [45], followed by personal innovativeness [36], [47], self-efficacy [34], [36], awareness [28], [46], and habit [30], [40], each of which was repeated 2 times. Furthermore, the remaining set of factors include group readiness [47], optimism [47], motivation, engagement [34], compatibility [45], and other demographic characteristics such as age, gender [29], [35], computer skills, education, and socioeconomic status [29], [34], [46], each of which was mentioned only once.…”

“…2) Organizational Factors: Organizational factors refer to the various aspects and characteristics within healthcare institutions that influence the overall organization's operations, performance, efficiency, and quality of care provided. These characteristics including as examples infrastructure, resource allocation, and training programs [51].The review showed that the facilitating conditions factor is the significant facilitator for adopting telemedicine where it was repeated in the included studies 3 times for providers [13], [42], [44] and 5 times for patients [28], [35], [37], [40], [45]. Government policy, top management support, project team capacity, and external suppliers' capacity are examples of the facilitators mentioned in the included studies from the providers' perspective whereas technical and connectivity issues were mentioned as barriers for patients.…”

“…As shown in Fig. 6, the most common factors for patients were effort expectancy and performance expectancy [28], [35], [37], [40], [46], which were derived from the UTAUT model. They were mentioned in the included studies 5 times each.…”