Development of an Attitude Scale for the Use of Telemedicine Services

Introduction:This study aimed to develop a scale to assess attitudes toward the use of telemedicine services, to study the reliability and validity of the developed scale, and to determine the characteristics that may be associated with the scores obtained from the scale.

Methods:This study, which was conducted with 600 people older than 18 years, who applied to Family Health Centers in Meram district of Konya province, was designed in a methodological type. The sociodemographic characteristics form and the candidate scale form designed in a 5-point Likert structure were used to collect data in the study. The data collection forms were applied to the participants under observation. SPSS and R programs were used for data analysis. Statistically, cases with p < 0.05 were considered significant.

Results:Two hundred fifty people (n = 250) for reliability and explanatory factor analysis and 350 people for confirmatory factor analysis, 600 people in total, were included in the study. The results of all reliability and validity analyses of the candidate scale were found to be sufficient. The explained variance of the one-dimensional 18-item scale was 53.8% and the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.947. There was a significant difference between the score obtained from the scale and work status and presence of chronic disease (p < 0.05).

Conclusion:As a result of the research, a new measurement tool called “Attitude Scale Towards the Use of Telemedicine Services” consisting of 18 questions was developed, reliability and validity analyses were performed, and it was shown that it is suitable for use in individuals older than 18 years.