Telemedicine in Developing Countries: Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Caregivers of Children with Epilepsy Regarding Telemedicine at the Philippine Children’s Medical Center

Abstract

Purpose: The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has prompted the use of telemedicine as an alternative method for providing continuous epilepsy care. This study was conducted to validate and administer a web-based questionnaire to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) regarding telemedicine among caregivers of children with epilepsy at the Philippine Children’s Medical Center (PCMC). Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted by a primary investigator from the child neurology section of PCMC between July 2022 and October 2022 and consisted of two phases. In phase 1, content validation and pre-testing of the Filipino version of the questionnaire were conducted with 29 caregivers. Phase 2 involved the web-based administration of the final version of the questionnaire to 89 caregivers. Results: The resulting questionnaire comprised four main sections: demographics, KAP. Regarding caregivers’ knowledge, 70.8% had not heard of telemedicine before participating in teleconsulta-tions at PCMC. However, most participants were able to correctly identify its purposes (86.4%), benefits (87.6%), and barriers (78.7%). All aspects of the caregivers’ attitudes demonstrated positive agreement with the Likert scale of attitudes, with P values of <0.01, which indicated statistical significance. The most common device used was a cellular phone, and most caregivers identified Facebook Messenger, Viber, and Zoom as the most useful platforms. Conclusion: Our study revealed low awareness of the availability of telemedicine services but good knowledge of its purposes, benefits, and barriers. Caregivers exhibited positive attitudes toward telemedicine, with Facebook Messenger identified as the most useful platform.