Perspectives of health care users towards rehabilitation during the COVID-19 pandemic: A social media analysis in Germany.

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic and the infection control measures implemented affect different parts of society including health care. Rehabilitative care is one sector of health care where challenges are particularly pronounced. This, for example, is reflected in reservations of patients to utilize services out of fear of infection. Patients utilizing services may also face difficulties as restrictions related to social distancing may affect treatments that require a close contact between health care users and staff. Using social media data, the present study aims to analyze the perspectives of health care users who have already used or are planning or advised to use rehabilitation services during the pandemic.

Methods: Six social media forums were included in the study to explore the perspectives of health care users covering all posts between the beginning of March and mid-November 2020. Posts were analyzed using qualitative document analysis.

Results: In total, 99 threads containing posts and comments based on data from 6 different forums were obtained, generating a total of 7 codes and subcodes: Closure of hospitals and interruption of treatment, precautions and regulations in the hospitals, hygiene concerns, problems with appointments, information flow between insurance companies, hospitals and health care users, information about the new regulations and evaluation of the rehabilitation service.

Conclusions: The lack of information and the rapid changes in protective measures affect vulnerable patients physically, psychologically and economically. Insufficient regulations and problems with consultations put extra pressure on many health care users. The limited admission to the rehabilitation hospitals potentially increases the demand for rehabilitation in the future.

Publication History

Article published online:
02 September 2021