Individual Perception of Telehealth: Validation of a German Translation of the Telemedicine Perception Questionnaire and a Derived Short Version

Abstract

Telehealth is a growing domain with particular relevance for remote patient monitoring. With respect to the biopsychosocial model of health, it is important to evaluate perception and satisfaction with new methods in telehealth as part of an integrative approach. The Telemedicine Perception Questionnaire (TMPQ) is a 17-item questionnaire measuring patients’ perception of and satisfaction with telecare. We translated this survey into German and determined its validity and reliability in 32 adolescents and adults. Furthermore, we derived a short version of the TMPQ, named Patient and Physician Satisfaction with Monitoring (PPSM), which is a 5-item questionnaire that can be administered to both patients and physicians. Validity and reliability were tested in 32 patients and 32 physicians. Crohnbach’s α for the translated TMPQ was 0.76, and the German version yielded high validity (intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) 0.995). We tested the PPSM in both patients and physicians and found acceptable values for Crohnbach’s α (0.72 and 0.78) with excellent validity (ICC 0.965). We therefore concluded from this small study that both German versions of the TMPQ and PPSM can be used to investigate the acceptance of telehealth applications.