Study: telehealth has no quality of life impact on patients with chronic conditions

When measured against conventional care, second generation home-based telehealth had no significant impact on health-related quality of life, depression or anxiety for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, or heart failure over 12 months, according to a Feb. 26 BMJ Group study.

The results both debunk claims that telehealth is harmful for most patients and show that telehealth is not superior to conventional care in improving quality of life or depression and anxiety in patients, according to author Martin Cartwright, research associate in health services research, School of Health Sciences, City University London, and colleagues.

“The overall consistency of results demonstrates that the findings are robust to variations in attrition, protocol fidelity, and choice of outcome measure,” the report stated.

As more providers look to telehealth, the study aimed to fill a void in research that examines telehealth’s impact on quality of life, anxiety and depression.

Researchers utilized the Whole Systems Demonstrator telehealth questionnaire to obtain patient-reported outcomes over 12 months in a pragmatic, cluster randomized controlled trial that took place via general practices, specialist nurses, and hospital clinics in three diverse regions of England. Data were collected at three points: baseline, four months and 12 months.

With these findings in hand, Cartwright and colleagues said future studies could look at telehealth’s impact on self care, perceived impact of illness and activities of daily living. “[This] may offer a different perspective on the potential effect of telehealth. Effects of telehealth might not be uniform across all patients, and analyses may suggest subgroups of patients for whom telehealth is either particularly beneficial or harmful,” Cartwright et al wrote.