Telehealth Use By Persons with Disabilities During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Carli Friedman, Laura VanPuymbrouck
Abstract
Telehealth use rapidly expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding if, and how, persons with disabilities (PWDS) used telehealth during the pandemic is vital to assuring that this evolving and increasingly common form of health care is equitably developed and delivered to avoid reproducing the health disparities PWDS already face. Our aim was to explore the use of telehealth among PWDS during the pandemic. We conducted a weighted secondary analysis of United States Census Bureau data (April-July 2021) from 38,512 (unweighted) PWDS. Our findings revealed 39.8% of PWDS used telehealth during the second year of the pandemic, ranging from 34.5% of persons with hearing disabilities to 43.3% of persons with mobility disabilities. There were also differences in telehealth use based on sociodemographics. Telehealth promises to open doors to more equitable health care access for many PWDS, but only if access barriers are removed.