Exploring the acceptability and experience of receiving diabetes and pregnancy care via telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study
Open accessAbstract
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the delivery of diabetes in pregnancy care and general maternity care. This study aimed to explore the experiences and acceptability of telehealth use in diabetes in pregnancy care during the COVID-19 pandemic, from the perspectives of pregnant women and their clinicians. The secondary aim was to explore the experiences of pregnant women receiving general maternity care via telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: In-depth qualitative semi-structured interviews were undertaken and analysed via thematic inductive approaches. The Nonadoption, Abandonment, and Challenges to the Scale-Up, Spread, and Sustainability of Health and Care Technologies Framework (NASSS) was applied. Results: Eigthteen interviews were conducted with culturally and linguistically diverse pregnant women and 4 clinicians (endocrinologists and dietitians). All interviewees were satisfied with telehealth as a positive alternative to face-to-face consultations for diabetes care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Numerous benefits of delivering diabetes care via telehealth were discussed and themes centred around greater access to care, economic benefits and improved safety. Most barriers concerned the adopters (clinicians), yet, feasible and realistic suggestions to overcome barriers were voiced. The scope for technology adaptation and ongoing embedment into routine diabetes care was described. Overall, a hybrid flexible delivery model, predominantly consisting of telephone consultations, with some face-to-face consultations for initial diabetes appointments was recommended for future care. The use of telehealth in replacement of face-to-face appointments for general maternity care was perceived as reducing care quality. Conclusion: In this study, telehealth was viewed as acceptable to women and clinicians for diabetes in pregnancy care, supporting the ongoing delivery of a hybrid service model of telehealth and face-to-face care. These findings provide valuable information to improve diabetes in pregnancy services to meet the needs of women during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Tong, A., Sainsbury, P., & Craig, J. (2007) · International Journal for Quality in Health Care · doi:10.1093/intqhc/mzm042 · Cited by 42,509 · see citing works
International Diabetes Federation 2017
Carracher, A. M., Marathe, P. H., & Close, K. L. (2018) · Journal of Diabetes · doi:10.1111/1753-0407.12644 · Cited by 13,369 · see citing works
Telehealth for global emergencies: Implications for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
Smith, A. C., Thomas, E., Snoswell, C. L., Haydon, H., Mehrotra, A., Clemensen, J., & Caffery, L. J. (2020) · Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare · doi:10.1177/1357633x20916567 · Cited by 1,828 · see citing works
Gestational Diabetes Mellitus: Risks and Management during and after Pregnancy
Buchanan, T. A., Xiang, A. H., & Page, K. A. (2012) · Nature Reviews Endocrinology · doi:10.1038/nrendo.2012.96 · Cited by 718 · see citing works
Telehealth Interventions to Improve Obstetric and Gynecologic Health Outcomes
DeNicola, N. G., Grossman, D., Marko, K. I., Sonalkar, S., Tobah, Y. B., Ganju, N., Witkop, C., Henderson, J. T., Butler, J. L., & Lowery, C. L. (2020) · Obstetrics and Gynecology · doi:10.1097/aog.0000000000003646 · Cited by 354 · see citing works
Lee, A. C., Mullany, L. C., Koffi, A. K., Rafiqullah, I., Khanam, R., Folger, L. V., Rahman, M., Mitra, D. K., Labrique, A. B., Christian, P. S., et al. (2019) · BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth · doi:10.1186/s12884-019-2665-0 · Cited by 336 · see citing works
Nguyen, C. L., Pham, N. M., Binns, C. W., Duong, D., & Lee, A. H. (2018) · Journal of Diabetes Research · doi:10.1155/2018/6536974 · Cited by 292 · see citing works
Prevalence of gestational diabetes and subsequent Type 2 diabetes among U.S. women
Casagrande, S. S., Linder, B. L., & Cowie, C. C. (2018) · Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice · doi:10.1016/j.diabres.2018.05.010 · Cited by 234 · see citing works
Greenhalgh, T., Wherton, J., Papoutsi, C., Lynch, J., Hughes, G., A’Court, C., Hinder, S., Procter, R., & Shaw, S. (2018) · BMC Medicine · doi:10.1186/s12916-018-1050-6 · Cited by 232 · see citing works
Xie, W., Dai, P., Qin, Y., Wu, M., Yang, B., & Yu, X. (2020) · BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth · doi:10.1186/s12884-020-02892-1 · Cited by 182 · see citing works
Gestational diabetes mellitus: Challenges for different ethnic groups
Yuen, L. (2015) · World Journal of Diabetes · doi:10.4239/wjd.v6.i8.1024 · Cited by 176 · see citing works
Karavadra, B., Stöckl, A., Prosser‐Snelling, E., Simpson, P. D., & Morris, E. (2020) · BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth · doi:10.1186/s12884-020-03283-2 · Cited by 167 · see citing works
Meaney, S., Leitão, S., Olander, E. K., Pope, J. S., & Matvienko‐Sikar, K. (2021) · Women and Birth · doi:10.1016/j.wombi.2021.04.013 · Cited by 155 · see citing works
Wherton, J., Shaw, S., Papoutsi, C., Seuren, L., & Greenhalgh, T. (2020) · BMJ Leader · doi:10.1136/leader-2020-000262 · Cited by 154 · see citing works
Smith, A. C., & Gray, L. (2009) · The Medical Journal of Australia · doi:10.5694/j.1326-5377.2009.tb02255.x · Cited by 138 · see citing works
Vasilevski, V., Sweet, L. P., Bradfield, Z., Wilson, A. N., Hauck, Y. L., Kuliukas, L. J., Homer, C., Szabo, R. A., & Wynter, K. H. (2021) · Women and Birth · doi:10.1016/j.wombi.2021.04.012 · Cited by 111 · see citing works
Bradfield, Z., Wynter, K. H., Hauck, Y. L., Vasilevski, V., Kuliukas, L. J., Wilson, A. N., Szabo, R. A., Homer, C., & Sweet, L. P. (2021) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0248488 · Cited by 106 · see citing works
Asefa, A., Semaan, A. T., Delvaux, T., Huysmans, E., Galle, A., Sacks, E., Bohren, M. A., Morgan, A., Sadler, M., Vedam, S., et al. (2021) · Women and Birth · doi:10.1016/j.wombi.2021.09.003 · Cited by 98 · see citing works
COVID-19 pandemic: Impact on gestational diabetes mellitus prevalence
Zanardo, V., Tortora, D., Sandri, A., Severino, L., Mesirca, P., & Straface, G. (2022) · Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice · doi:10.1016/j.diabres.2021.109149 · Cited by 93 · see citing works
Wilson, A. N., Sweet, L. P., Vasilevski, V., Hauck, Y. L., Wynter, K. H., Kuliukas, L. J., Szabo, R. A., Homer, C., & Bradfield, Z. (2021) · Birth · doi:10.1111/birt.12569 · Cited by 84 · see citing works
Effects of COVID-19 pandemic lockdown on gestational diabetes mellitus: A retrospective study
Ghesquière, L., Garabedian, C., Drumez, E., Lemaître, M., Cazaubiel, M., Bengler, C., & Vambergue, A. (2021) · Diabetes & Metabolism · doi:10.1016/j.diabet.2020.09.008 · Cited by 71 · see citing works
Dyb, K., Berntsen, G. R., & Kvam, L. (2021) · BMC Health Services Research · doi:10.1186/s12913-021-06262-1 · Cited by 67 · see citing works
Almuslim, H. H., & AlDossary, S. A. (2021) · Telemedicine Journal and e-Health · doi:10.1089/tmj.2020.0553 · Cited by 54 · see citing works
Virtual consultations: are we missing anything?
Kilvert, A., Wilmot, E. G., Davies, M., & Fox, C. (2020) · Practical Diabetes · doi:10.1002/pdi.2288 · Cited by 39 · see citing works
Supporting people with diabetes during the COVID-19 pandemic without face-to-face appointments
Nagi, D. K., Choudhary, P., Wilmot, E. G., et al. (2020) · British Journal of Diabetes · doi:10.15277/bjd.2020.246 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
Clement, K. D., Zimmermann, E. F., Bhatt, N. R., Light, A., Gao, C., Kulkarni, M., Norris, J. M., Gallagher, K., Cambridge, W. A., Shah, T. T., et al. (2020) · BMJ Innovations · doi:10.1136/bmjinnov-2020-000465 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Shin, H. D., Hamovitch, E., Gatov, E., MacKinnon, M., Samawi, L., Boateng, R., Thorpe, K. E., & Barwick, M. (2025) · PLOS Digital Health · doi:10.1371/journal.pdig.0000418 · Cited by 40 · see citing works
“=33) such as utilizing a table to organize barriers and enablers by NASSS domains (e.g., [54]).”
- Authors
- Kozica-Olenski, S. L., Soldatos, G., Marlow, L., Cooray, S. D., & Boyle, J. A.
- Affiliations
- Monash Health (AU)
- Monash University (AU)
- Eastern Health (AU)
- Venue
- BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth
- Published
- 2022-12-13
- Volume
- 22
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 932-932
- ISSN
- 1471-2393 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC9745277
- OpenAlex
- W4311230839
- Cited by
- 19
- References
- 26
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 4
- FWCI
- 3.17
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Research Square (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Telemedicine and Telehealth Implementation
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Mobile Health and mHealth Applications
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Obstetrics and Gynecology › Gestational Diabetes Research and Management
- Keywords
- telemedicine, diabetes in pregnancy, COVID-19 pandemic, acceptability, pregnant women, clinicians, obstetric care, telephone consultation, hybrid care model, culturally and linguistically diverse women, NASSS framework, technology adoption barriers, health care access
- MeSH terms
- COVID-19, Diabetes Mellitus, Female, Humans, Maternal Health Services, Pregnancy, Telemedicine, Pandemics
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
