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aimi,2 Joud O Alotaibi,2 Malek M Alqahtani,1 Ruba D Alzahrani,2 Shahad A Alajmi,2 Rami R AlOsaimi,2 Salman M Majrashi,1 Abdullah K Alahmari,1 Ahmed M Alshehri,1 Abdulaziz I Alzarea,3 Mohammad Tarique Imam,1 Areej A Alshlowi21Department of Clinical Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj, Saudi Arabia; 2College of Pharmacy, Almaarefa University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; 3Department of Clinical Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, Jouf University, Sakaka, Aljouf, Saudi Arabia Correspondence: Ziyad S Almalki, Department of Clinical Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj, Saudi Arabia, Tel +966 11 588 6059, Email [email protected] Purpose: This study aimed to explore the Willingness To Pay (WTP) of uninsured individuals in Saudi Arabia and the factors influencing their decisions regarding telemedicine services. Patients and Methods: This study used a cross-sectional survey design and convenience sampling to gather data from respondents aged 18 years or older who had visited healthcare facilities at least once in the past year and were uninsured. WTP was determined using the contingent valuation method, and a two-part regression model was applied to analyze the factors influencing WTP. Results: The study included 4232 participants and discovered that approximately 17.41% were willing to pay for telemedicine services. Those aged 60 and older, employed in the government or private sector, in higher socioeconomic quintiles, and experiencing chronic health issues showed a positive association with their WTP value. Conversely, individuals aged between 30 and 44 years, married, and unemployed exhibited a negative association with a lower WTP value. Conclusion: The findings indicate that most respondents hesitated to pay for telemedicine services, with a significant influence from sociodemographic characteristics, underscoring the need to promote telemedicine use among underserved populations and address health disparities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study investigated the access to and disparities in telemedicine use among patients with chronic conditions in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.Patients and Methods: A cross-sectional study of randomly selected primary healthcare centers was conducted to ensure that each of the 17 municipalities in Riyadh were represented. Three hundred and forty-two participants who completed the questionnaire were interviewed using a standardized questionnaire. The relationship between demographic and socioeconomic factors and telemedicine utilization was evaluated using the chi-square test and multivariable mixed-effects logistic regression model.Results: Among the 342 participants, the study revealed that 25.73% of the patients utilized telemedicine. Older participants had lower odds of telemedicine use than did those aged ≤ 30 years [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 0.112, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.045– 0.279 for 50– 59 years; AOR = 0.19, 95% CI = 0.076– 0.474 for 60– 69 years; AOR = 0.223, 95% CI = 0.092– 0.542 for ≥ 70 years]. Female sex (AOR = 2.519, 95% CI = 1.44– 4.408), having a higher education level (AOR = 3.434, 95% CI = 1.037– 7.041 for secondary education and AOR = 5.87, 95% CI = 2.761– 8.235 for higher education), and living in urban areas (AOR = 2.721, 95% CI = 1.184– 6.256) were associated with higher odds of telemedicine use. Among socioeconomic factors, employed participants had higher odds of telemedicine use (AOR = 4.336, 95% CI = 2.3– 8.174). Furthermore, compared to those with the highest socioeconomic status (SES) index, those with the lowest SES were less likely to use telemedicine than those with the highest SES index (AOR = 0.193, 95% CI = 0.055– 0.683 for the lower bottom (poorest).Conclusion: This study highlights a significant disparity in the utilization of telemedicine services across different populations, primarily due to demographic and socioeconomic factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is a correction notice for an article published in PLoS ONE. The correction addresses concerns about the relationship between the published article and a previously published article that was cited in it. The two studies have different objectives but are part of the same larger project. The correction also mentions that certain data describing a group of herbal supplement users were duplicated in the figures and tables of both articles. The authors apologize for this omission and provide corrected citations for a reference in the introduction. Additionally, the Data Availability statement for the article was incorrect, and the correct data are provided in a separate file. [Extracted from the article]

(1) Background: Many factors may play a role in deciding to opt for pharmacy as a major. However, no previous studies have been conducted in Saudi Arabia to explore these factors. This study aims to identify the potential factors that prompted students to join the pharmacy program. (2) Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire was distributed among undergraduate pharmacy students in Saudi Arabia, addressing areas such as reasons that encourage them to choose pharmacy as a major, and students' socio-demographic characteristics. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the study variables, and a simple logistic regression analysis was performed to identify the potential factors. (3) Results: A total of 491 students completed the questionnaire. Around 40% of them had chosen to study pharmacy as their first choice. Only gender, current GPA, and reasons related to the pharmacy field were found to have a statistically significant association with students selecting pharmacy as their first choice. (4) Conclusions: This study shows that pharmacy students have a future-oriented outlook and selected pharmacy as their first choice because it will develop them professionally, financially, and intellectually. Educating high school students about the characteristic of pharmacy would help attract more talented students to the pharmacy carrier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]