. 2022 Sep 14;6(9):e36525. doi: 10.2196/36525

Table 2.

Comparison of basic characteristics of COVID-19 and telehealth accessibility in epidemic and nonepidemic regions.

Characteristics			Total regions (N=47)		Epidemic regions (n=13)		Nonepidemic regions (n=34)		P value
COVID-19/100,000 people (n), mean (95% CI)
	Cases	897.2 (709.6-1084.7)		1495 (1183.1-1806.9)		658.1 (478.6-837.6)		<.001
	Severe cases	170.5 (119.0-221.9)		277.3 (160.4-394.2)		127.7 (76.4-179.1)		.006
	Deaths	9.1 (7.0-11.1)		16.9 (12.5-21.3)		6 (4.7-7.2)		<.001
Accessibility of all telehealth (%), mean (95% CI)
	Hospital	36.7 (32.8-40.7)		32.8 (26.9-38.6)		38.2 (33.3-43.2)		.24
	General clinic	14.2 (12.5-16.0)		13.9 (11.2-16.6)		14.3 (12.1-16.6)		.79
Accessibility of mobile apps (%), mean (95% CI)
	Hospital	2.5 (2.0-3.0)		3.8 (2.7-4.8)		2 (1.5-2.5)		.004
	General clinic	3.6 (3.3-4.1)		5.2 (4.3-6.0)		3.1 (2.8-3.4)		<.001
Regional correlation between mobile app accessibility and COVID-19 prevalence, r
	Hospital	0.497^a		0.457^a		0.496^a
	General clinic	0.629^a		0.566^a		0.627^a

^aPrefectures declared to be in a state of emergency in the first wave were categorized as epidemic regions (Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba, Osaka, Hyogo, Fukuoka, Hokkaido, Ibaraki, Ishikawa, Gifu, Aichi, and Kyoto). Student t test was applied to compare two independent means for cases of COVID-19, severe cases, and deaths in epidemic and nonepidemic regions. Mann-Whitney U Test was applied to compare two independent means for mobile app accessibility rate in hospitals and general clinics. Spearman rank-order correlation was applied for regional correlation of COVID-19 prevalence and the proportion of telehealth availability in each prefecture. P value was set at a significant level of .05.