Assessing the dermatological healthcare needs of today's geriatric population; a nation-wide behavioral analysis
The geriatric population (65 years or older) represents a large portion of dermatology patients and is growing rapidly. This population is hypothesized to face several exacerbated barriers to dermatological healthcare, often resulting in the deferral of necessary dermatological healthcare. This avoi...
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| Language: | en_US |
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2019
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/2144/38724 |
| Summary: | The geriatric population (65 years or older) represents a large portion of dermatology patients and is growing rapidly. This population is hypothesized to face several exacerbated barriers to dermatological healthcare, often resulting in the deferral of necessary dermatological healthcare. This avoidance behavior unnecessarily increases morbidity and mortality of this population due to dermatological diseases. The behaviors of this group towards their dermatological healthcare must be assessed for public policy to help fix the disparity seen in their dermatologic care.
A cross-sectional online survey was carried out among a randomly selected sample of 609 registered SurveyMonkey® users aged 65 years or older across the continental United States. Multiple linear regression analysis of the data revealed a negative relationship between perceived barriers to care and self-reported usability of telemedicine (p=0.01). This analysis also revealed several gender differences; females were more likely to be concerned with “cosmetic/aging” (p<0.0001) and males reported both higher prevalence of skin cancer (p<0.005) and higher concern for developing skin cancer (p=0.05). |
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