According To A New Study, Patients Are Texting, Smoking, Or Tweeting During Appointments

Jessica Gold, assistant professor of psychiatry at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis

 

 

DrFirst surveyed 1,000 Americans over the age of 18 and found that while 44% of them have now used telehealth services during the pandemic, including 25% for therapy, 73% of men and 39% of women reported multitasking during their visits.

The types of distractions were varied with the most common being surfing the web, checking e-mail, or checking texts (24.5%), watching the news, TV, or a movie (24%), scrolling through social media (21%), eating a snack or meal (21%), and playing a video game (19%).

Respondents also indicated doing telehealth appointments with their doctor while smoking a cigarette (11%), drinking an alcoholic beverage (9.4%), or driving (10%).

One could hardly imagine any patient smoking in a doctor’s office openly in person, though it does perhaps give a bigger picture of a person in context.

Read the full piece in Forbes.

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