INTRODUCTION: Remote consultations help reduce contact between people and prevent cross-contamination. Little is known about the changes in consultation in European rural primary care during the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic. The purpose of this mixed-methods cross-sectional study was to find out more about the effects of the pandemic on changes in patient consultations in European rural primary care. METHODS: A key informant survey from 16 member countries of the European Rural and Isolated Practitioners Association (EURIPA) was undertaken using a self-developed questionnaire. The steering committee of this project, called EURIPA Covid-19 study, developed a semi-structured questionnaire with 68 questions, 21 of which included free-text comments. Proportions were calculated for dichotomized or categorized data, and means were calculated for continuous data. Multivariate analysis by logistic regression model was used to assess the association of multiple variables. RESULTS: A total of 406 questionnaires from primary care providers (PCPs) in 16 European countries were collected; 245 respondents (60.5%) were females, 152 PCPs were rural (37.5%), 124 semi-rural (30.5%). Mean age of the respondents was 45.9 years (standard deviation (SD) 11.30) while mean seniority (length of experience) was 18.2 years (SD 11.6). A total of 381 (93.8%) respondents were medical doctors. Significant differences were found between countries in adopting alternative arrangements to face-to-face consultation: remote teleconsultation is well appreciated by both healthcare professionals and patients, but the most common way of remote consultation remains telephone consultation. A factor significantly inversely associated with the adoption of video consultation was the seniority of the PCP (odds ratio 1.19, 95% confidence interval 1.02-1.40, p=0.03). CONCLUSION: Telephone consultation is the most common form of remote consultation. The adoption of video-consultation is inversely related to the seniority of the informants.

European Rural and Isolated Practitioner Association

European Rural and Isolated Practitioner Association ; and Collège de la Médecine Générale France

European Rural and Isolated Practitioner Association ; and Czech GP Society Department of Social Medicine Faculty of Medicine Charles University Hradec Králové Czech Republic

European Rural and Isolated Practitioner Association ; and Department of Clinical Sciences Centre for Primary Health Care Research Lund University Malmö Sweden

European Rural and Isolated Practitioner Association ; and Department of Family Medicine Faculty of Medicine University of Szeged Szeged Hungary

European Rural and Isolated Practitioner Association ; and Department of Family Medicine Medical Faculty Rīga Stradiņš University Dzirciema St 16 Riga LV 1007 Latvia

European Rural and Isolated Practitioner Association ; and Department of Family Medicine Shupyk National Healthcare University of Ukraine Kyiv Ukraine

European Rural and Isolated Practitioner Association ; and Department of Family Medicine Siaal Family Medicine and Primary Care Research Center Faculty of Health Sciences Ben Gurion University of the Negev BeerSheva Israel

European Rural and Isolated Practitioner Association ; and Department of Family Medicine University of Split School of Medicine Croatia

European Rural and Isolated Practitioner Association ; and Department of Primary Care Azienda Sanitaria Friuli Occidentale Pordenone Italy

European Rural and Isolated Practitioner Association ; and Department of Primary Care Cerdido Area Sanitaria de Ferrol Sergas Spain

European Rural and Isolated Practitioner Association ; and Department of Public Health Slovak Medical University Bratislava Slovakia

European Rural and Isolated Practitioner Association ; and Faculty of Medicine Izmir University of Economics Balçova Izmir Turkey

European Rural and Isolated Practitioner Association ; and Family Medicine Department Faculty of Medicine Wroclaw Medical University Wroclaw Poland

European Rural and Isolated Practitioner Association ; and Georgian Family Medicine Association Tbilisi State Medical University Tbilisi Georgia

European Rural and Isolated Practitioner Association ; and Spili Primary Care Center Regional Health System of Crete Spili Greece

European Rural and Isolated Practitioner Association ; and Turkish Association of Family Physicians Primary Care Center Izmir Turkey

European Rural and Isolated Practitioner Association ; and University Clinic of Primary Medical Assistance State University of Medicine and Pharmacy N Testemițanu” the Republic of Moldova

European Rural and Isolated Practitioner Association ; Department of Family Medicine University of Medicine and Pharmacy Craiova Romania

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