Telemedicine and direct to consumer advertising attitudes and the future of telehealth: Women report telemedicine as a comfortable option for accessing birth control.

This paper addresses what variables predict and mediate relationships involving accessing telemedicine in the form of online birth control websites that are often advertised online on social media. This is a survey study of N = 252 under 60 women (Mage = 24.71); multiple linear regression and mediation analyses were done to examine the influence of IBM variables on behavioral intentions. Women who currently use contraceptives report comfort and likelihood to use telemedicine services if they have positive attitudes about telemedicine and DTC advertising. Comfort with using an online contraceptive prescription service mediated the relationship between contraceptive use and likelihood to use telemedical services and between positive telemedicine attitudes and likelihood. Women who are positive about telemedicine and DTC ads are comfortable using these resources, and comfort is a salient mediator. Comfort and its antecedents are important predictors and facilitators of telemedicine intentions and behaviors. Using telemedicine can improve the patient experience by offering alternatives to face-to-face visits (i.e., removing barriers to provider-to-patient communication). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]