Chinese dentists' use of teledentistry and its influencing factors - A Cross-sectional study

doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-1448358/v1

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Chinese dentists' use of teledentistry and its influencing factors - A Cross-sectional study

https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1448358/v1

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Background

We investigated the factors influencing the utilization of teledentistry among dentists to improve the effective use of teledentistry in clinical work. Further, we provided suggestions to promote the development and improvement of teledentistry in the dental industry.

Methods

We conducted a descriptive cross-sectional study using an electronic survey in a sample of Chinese dental professionals. We designed 17 electronic questionnaires to evaluate the basic information of the dentists and four areas of perception in dentists: knowledge and attitude of the teledentistry, medical needs, teledentistry participation satisfaction and telemedicine use. We summarized the survey results using descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic regression analysis.

Results

601 dental professionals participated in the study. 90.8% of dentists were aware of teledentistry, but only 51.7% agreed that teledentistry was effective in practice. The utilization rate of teledentistry was 59.1% in the previous year. The factors affecting teledentistry use were gender (OR=1.57, P<0.05), daily working hours (OR=1.86, P<0.05), level of knowledge (OR=2.50, P<0.05), consultation needs (OR=0.46, P<0.05), technology (OR=1.90, P<0.05) and network (OR=1.86, P<0.05).

Conclusion

Teledentistry should be combined with digital dental technology (e.g. 3D printing and CAD/CAM), visualization technology (e.g. VR/AR) and 5G technology to provide dentists with better technical standards and network transmission to help diagnose and treat patients. Simultaneously, we should pay attention to the associated factors such as understanding the degree of teledentistry, relevant demographic and sociological characteristics and working hours. Considering the current progress, we should optimize the process and efficiency in the teledentistry to increase its utilization among dentists.

Teledentistry

Dentist

Utilization

Associated factors

Table 1

Assignment table of dentists' influence variables on teledentistry utilization

Variable	Mean	Variable assignment
X1	Sex	Man=0,Woman=1
X2	Education	Junior College below（1,0,0）
		Undergraduates（0,1,0）
		Postgraduate and above（0,0,1）
X3	Professional title	Primary（1,0,0）
		Intermediate（0,1,0）
		Senior（0,0,1）
X4	Working years	1～5 year（1,0,0,0）
		6～10 year（0,1,0,0）
		11～20 year（0,0,1,0） More than 20 years（0,0,0,1）
X5	Hospital grade	Level 3（1,0,0）
		Level 2（0,1,0）
		Level 1（0,0,1）
X6	Personal work hours per day	1～5 hour（1,0,0,0） 5～8 hour（0,1,0,0） 8～10 hour（0,0,1,0） More than 10 hour (0,0,0,1)
X7	Degree of understanding	know well (1,0,0) know (0,1,0) Don't know (0,0,1)
X8	Acceptance	Poor (1,0,0) General (0,1,0) Good(0,0,1)
X9	Referral needs	Yes=0,No=1
X10	Consultation needs	Yes=0,No=1
X11	Training needs	Yes=0,No=1
X12	Guide needs	Yes=0,No=1
X13	Technology satisfaction	Yes=0,No=1
X14	Process satisfaction	Yes=0,No=1
X15	Transmission satisfaction	Yes=0,No=1
X16	Communication satisfaction	Yes=0,No=1
Y	Have you used telemedicine in the last year	Yes=0,No=1

Table 2

Univariate analysis of telemedicine utilization by dentists

Variable	Classification	Yes		No		Chi-square value	P value
Variable	Classification	Frequency	Ratio	Frequency	Ratio	Chi-square value	P value
Sex	Man	115	52.00%	106	48.00%	7.149	0.008
Sex	Woman	240	63.20%	140	36.80%	7.149	0.008
Education	Junior College below	45	63.40%	26	36.60%	0.629	0.730
	Undergraduates	207	58.60%	146	41.40%
	Postgraduate and above	103	58.20%	74	41.80%
Professional title	Primary	159	63.30%	92	36.70%	3.266	0.195
	Intermediate	138	56.10%	108	43.90%
	Senior	58	55.80%	46	44.20%
Working years	1～5year	136	62.10%	83	37.90%	1.335	0.721
	6～10 year	91	56.90%	69	43.10%
	11～20 year	61	57.50%	45	42.50%
	More than 20 years	67	57.80%	49	42.20%
Hospital grade	Level 3	227	55.00%	186	45.00%	9.811	0.007
	Level 2	84	66.10%	43	33.90%
	Level 1	44	72.10%	17	27.90%
Personal work hours per day	1～5 hour	107	82.30%	23	17.70%	62.04	0.000
	5～8 hour	37	42.00%	51	58.00%
	8～10 hour	136	65.40%	72	34.60%
	More than 10 hour	75	42.90%	100	57.10%
	Don't know	80	45.20%	97	54.80%	22.42	0.000
Degree of understanding	know	234	63.40%	135	36.60%
	know well	41	74.50%	14	25.50%
Acceptance	poor	15	53.60%	13	46.40%	6.931	0.031
	General	183	64.70%	100	35.30%
	Good	157	54.10%	133	45.90%
Referral needs	Yes	169	59.90%	113	40.10%	0.163	0.687
Referral needs	No	186	58.30%	133	41.70%	0.163	0.687
Consultation needs	Yes	197	54.00%	168	46.00%	9.982	0.002
Consultation needs	No	158	66.90%	78	33.10%	9.982	0.002
Training needs	Yes	215	63.00%	126	37.00%	5.168	0.023
Training needs	No	140	45.90%	120	46.20%	5.168	0.023
Guide needs	Yes	328	58.70%	231	41.30%	0.508	0.476
Guide needs	No	27	64.30%	15	35.70%	0.508	0.476
Technology satisfaction	Yes	224	65.50%	118	34.50%	13.57	0.000
Technology satisfaction	No	131	50.60%	128	49.40%	13.57	0.000
Process satisfaction	Yes	344	59.20%	237	40.80%	0.142	0.707
Process satisfaction	No	11	55.00%	9	45.00%	0.142	0.707
Network satisfaction	Yes	288	63.30%	167	36.70%	13.85	0.000
Network satisfaction	No	67	45.90%	79	54.10%	13.85	0.000
Communication satisfaction	Yes	171	58.00%	124	42.00%	0.291	0.590
Communication satisfaction	No	184	60.10%	122	39.90%	0.291	0.590

Table 3

Multi-factor analysis of telemedicine utilization by dentists

Variable	B	S.E,	Wals	df	P	0R	95% C.I.
Variable	B	S.E,	Wals	df	P	0R	Lower	Upper
Sex	.451	.195	5.363	1	.021	1.570	1.072	2.299
Level 1			2.498	2	.287
Level 2	.408	.329	1.533	1	.216	1.504	.788	2.868
Level 3	.123	.372	.110	1	.740	1.131	.546	2.345
1～5 hour			57.056	3	.000
5～8 hour	-1.987	.300	43.896	1	.000	.137	.076	.247
8～10 hour	-.148	.291	.257	1	.612	.863	.487	1.527
More than 10 hour	-1.163	.234	24.658	1	.000	.313	.198	.495
Don't know			6.850	2	0.033
know	.915	.384	5.664	1	.017	2.496	1.175	5.303
know well	.509	.360	1.999	1	.157	1.664	.822	3.369
poor			2.958	2	.228
General	.543	.472	1.327	1	.249	1.722	.683	4.338
Good	-.190	.195	.948	1	.330	.827	.565	1.212
Consultation needs	-.780	.248	9.881	1	.002	.459	.282	.746
Training needs	.036	.241	.023	1	.880	1.037	.647	1.662
Technology satisfaction	.644	.192	11.247	1	.001	1.905	1.307	2.776
Transmission satisfaction	.618	.221	7.854	1	.005	1.855	1.204	2.859
Constant	-.735	.518	2.015	1	.156	.480

No competing interests reported.

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Chinese dentists' use of teledentistry and its influencing factors - A Cross-sectional study

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