遠距健康照護消費行為之實證研究

Purchasing Behavior for Telehealthcare Systems in Taiwan

在政府面臨預算緊縮、現有照護模式難以負荷節節高升的健康與社會照護需求下，使得遠距健康照護被視為解決未來健康照護需求的重要策略。綜觀國內外文獻，研究多著重於技術面及使用意圖的探討，有關購買意圖之研究仍相當缺乏。本研究以計畫行為理論為基礎，納入影響科技產品購買意願之有用性、易用性、健康意識及知覺財務控制，以瞭解哪些因素會影響遠距健康照護的購買意願。本研究以遠距健康照護服務之單位會員進行問卷發放，收集到176份有效問卷，並以smartPLS去驗證各變數間的假設及解釋能力。研究結果，影響消費者購買遠距健康照護的因素有態度及知覺財務控制等變項，而態度會受到知覺有用性、知覺易用性以及健康意識所影響，進而再影響到購買意圖。

Telehealthcare has been an important strategy to solve the growing healthcare needs in recent years, as the government’s welfare budget constraints and the health and social care needs continues to grow. According to literatures, several studies suggested that the public has high satisfaction and acceptance toward this technology. However, the purchase intention is not high because the service costs. Since most of the previous telehealthcare researches focused on the technical side or the use intention, studies on purchase intentions are relatively lacking. Hence, there is a need to identify the factors that affect the purchase intention of adopting telehealthcare.
This study aims to design a model of the factors affecting the consumers’ purchase intention of telehealthcare. The proposed model is based on the theory of planned behavior and includes perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and health consciousness. Data was collected from 176 consumers among a questionnaire distributed through telehealthcare centers. SPSS and smartPLS were employed as data analysis tools to confirm our hypotheses and test against the research model.
The findings of the study reveal that attitude and perceived financial control can be critical predictors of purchase intention. The results also suggest that consumers’ attitude toward purchases can be influenced by perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and health consciousness.