Telehealth Use Most Popular Among Young Women

Of the 25.6 percent of Americans who reported using a telehealth modality during the pandemic, the majority were women seeking behavioral healthcare, according to a report published by Trilliant Health.

During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of telehealth increased by 1,015 percent. However, usage has dropped over the past year.  

About 75 percent of Americans claimed to have not used any telehealth services during the pandemic.

Of those that did use the virtual care services, 46 percent used it for a single visit, 80 percent did not have more than four visits, and 14 percent had seven or more visits.

Researchers posited that despite the jump in telehealth use during the pandemic, patients still prefer in-person visits.

The two main types of patients that engaged in telehealth use during the pandemic were single users who prioritized COVID-19 safety and testing and women between the ages of 21 and 40 who primarily sought out behavioral health services.

The report shows that women made up 60 percent of all telehealth patients. Women also made up the majority of each utilization group, which includes single users (one visit), low users (two to four visits), average users (five to six visits), high users (seven to 24 visits), and super users (25-plus visits).

Among the female patients using behavioral health services for telehealth, the most common conditions were those related to stress and anxiety.

According to the Trilliant Health report, in-person visits dropped from 98.4 percent of all visits pre-pandemic to 70.9 percent in 2020. These types of visits rebounded in 2021, growing to 79.6 percent of all visits.

“The data suggests that in the absence of alternative choices, telehealth appears to be a substitute good,” said Sanjula Jain, Ph.D., Trilliant Health’s chief research officer and senior vice president of market strategy, in the news release. “However, when given a choice, the majority of patients prefer in-person care with the exception of behavioral health. Ultimately, traditional providers are not motivated to adopt telehealth and are not equipped to compete with retail suppliers.”  

Due to the well-defined population that seems to engage in telehealth, many providers and clinics may have difficulty finding an incentive to maintain telehealth services following the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the report.

The temporary increase in telehealth use during the pandemic was likely due to a lack of choice rather than preference, report authors stated.

The continued growth of virtual behavioral health care certainly appears to be due to the choice it offers patients and providers. A recent study shows that behavioral health physicians were more likely to adopt virtual care in the early stages of the pandemic compared to surgical specialty physicians.

Another study released last year shows that amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the population of mental health care patients using telehealth increased, likely due to the stress that the time brought.