Evaluating satisfaction of patients with stutter regarding the tele-speech therapy method and infrastructure

Objective: Investigating the required infrastructure for the implementation of telemedicine and the satisfaction of target groups improves the acceptance of this technology and facilitates the delivery of healthcare services. The aim of this study was to assess the satisfaction of patients with stutter concerning the therapeutic method and the infrastructure used to receive tele-speech therapy services. Methods: This descriptive-analytical study was conducted on all patients with stutter aged between 14 and 39 years at Jahrom Social Welfare Bureau (n=30). The patients underwent speech therapy sessions through video conferencing with Skype. Data were collected by a researcher-made questionnaire. Its content validity was confirmed by three medical informatics specialists. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 19. Results: The mean and standard deviation of patient satisfaction scores concerning the infrastructure and the tele-speech therapy method were 3.15 +/- 0.52 and 3.49 +/- 0.52, respectively. No significant relationship was found between the patients satisfaction and their gender, education level and age (p>0.05). The results of this study showed that the number of speech therapy sessions did not affect the overall satisfaction of the patients (p>0.05), but the number of therapeutic sessions had a direct relationship with their satisfaction with the infrastructure used for tele-speech therapy (p<0.05). Conclusions: The present study showed that patients were satisfied with tele-speech therapy. According to most patients the low speed of the Internet connection in the country was a major challenge for receiving tele-speech therapy. The results suggest that healthcare planner and policy makers invest on increasing bandwidth to improve the success rate of telemedicine programs.