Impact of Telehealth Utilization on Patient-Provider Communication and Healthcare Outcomes

The rapid adoption of telehealth has transformed healthcare delivery, particularly in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. While telehealth offers increased accessibility and continuity of care, concerns regarding its impact on patient-provider communication and subsequent healthcare outcomes persist. Existing literature suggests that effective communication is crucial for health management and corresponding behavioral and clinical outcomes, such as medication adherence. Yet, telehealth may introduce barriers that weaken provider engagement and patient involvement in communication, which leads to a decrease in the patient’s self-efficacy, and finally impact the healthcare outcomes. This study uses causal mediation analysis method to examine the role of patient-provider communication and self-efficacy as sequential mediators in the relationship between telehealth utilization and healthcare outcomes such as medication adherence.