The relationship between treatment burden and the use of telehealth technologies among patients with chronic conditions: A scoping review

Background

Patients managing chronic conditions often face significant treatment burdens due to the long-term nature of their care. Treatment burden refers to the workload associated with the self-management of chronic conditions. While telehealth is commonly used to support these patients, there is a growing concern about its impact on marginalized patient populations. Specifically, we lack a comprehensive overview on how and what types of telehealth can increase or minimize the perceived treatment burden among this patient population.

Objective

To synthesize evidence on the relationship between treatment burden and telehealth among patients with chronic conditions and their caregivers.

Methods

We used Arksey and O'Malley's five-step scoping review framework to identify relevant literature that was published from January 2004 to May 2023.

Results

Fifty-four studies were included in the review. We identified various ways telehealth increases or minimizes patients’ treatment burden. Some of the patient-reported benefits of telehealth regarding treatment burden were reducing time and cost associated with travel to the clinics. Conversely, some burdens associated with telehealth were making sense of the large volume of complex data generated by health technologies, and the extra work required to set up and learn about new technology.

Conclusion

Review findings emphasize the importance of considering the concept of treatment burden while introducing telehealth-based interventions to support patients and their caregivers with chronic conditions. Future research needs to identify how to minimize the treatment burden associated with telehealth while implementing new telehealth interventions.