Barriers to Telemedicine Adoption during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Taiwan: Comparison of Perceived Risks by Socioeconomic Status Correlates

Tzu-Chi Wu () and Chien-Ta Bruce Ho
Additional contact information
Tzu-Chi Wu: Institute of Technology Management, National Chung-Hsing University, Taichung 402, Taiwan
Chien-Ta Bruce Ho: Institute of Technology Management, National Chung-Hsing University, Taichung 402, Taiwan

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 4, 1-16

Abstract: Telemedicine is the use of technology to deliver healthcare services from a distance. In some countries, telemedicine became popular during the COVID-19 pandemic. Its increasing popularity provides new research opportunities to unveil users’ perceptions toward its adoption and continued use. Existing studies have provided limited information and understanding of Taiwanese users and the various sociodemographic factors that influence their intention to use telemedicine services. Thus, the goals of this study were twofold: identifying the dimensions of perceived risks of telemedicine services in Taiwan and providing specific responses to those perceptions as well as determining strategies to promote telemedicine to local policymakers and influencers by providing a better understanding of the perceived risks in relation to socioeconomic status. We collected 1000 valid responses using an online survey and found performance risk to be the main barrier, which was followed by psychological, physical, and technology risks. Older adults with lower levels of education are less likely to use telemedicine services compared to other categories because of multiple perceived risks, including social and psychological concerns. Understanding the differences in perceived risks of telemedicine services by socioeconomic status may aid in identifying the actions required to overcome barriers and may consequently improve adoption of the technology and user satisfaction.

Keywords: socioeconomic status; telemedicine; perceived risk; COVID-19; precision marketing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/4/3504/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/4/3504/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:4:p:3504-:d:1071037

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().