Exploring factors related to willingness to pay for telehealth services: a 2013 national survey in Taiwan

Abstract

Objectives: The purpose of this research was to explore the correlations between the factors of Taiwanese residents’ willingness to pay for telehealth services and the factors of individuals’1 desired needs from the service (system quality, service quality, and information quality). Methods: The study sample comprised people older than 20 years who were selected using multistage cluster sampling of probability proportional to size sampling method. Surveys were conducted using computer-aided telephone interviews (Computer Assisted Telephone Interview, CATI), and valid responses were collected from a total of 1,132 people. Results: The study results are listed as follows: (a) Of the respondents, 68.6% were willing to pay for telehealth services; those who were male, aged between 20 and 29 years, were single, had a high income, and exhibited poor health demonstrated a relatively higher willingness. (b) System quality was the most crucial factor affecting Taiwanese residents’ willingness to pay for telehealth services, followed by service quality and information quality. (c) The predictors of willingness to pay for telehealth services were marital status, urbanization area, health condition, education level, and sex, which collectively yielded a predicted probability of 69.4%. Conclusions: These results can facilitate understanding the experiences of people using telehealth services and developing services that thoroughly satisfy people’s individual needs. Concerns regarding data sharing, such as the confidentiality and security of computerized health records, will be explored in future studies.

目標：探討台灣民眾對雲端照護服務願意付費使用意願與醫療服務利用行為及雲端照護需求(系統品質、服務品質和資訊品質)之相關性。方法：研究對象為20歲以上台灣民眾，樣本分配以中選機率與人數等比例方式進行抽樣，並以電腦輔助電話訪問系統(Computer Assisted Telephone Interview, CATI)進行資料收集，進行性別、年齡、教育程度與居住地區等資料統計加權後，有效樣本數為1,132位。結果：(1)願意付費者使用雲端照護服務佔68.6%，以男性、20-29歲、無婚姻、獨居、高收入和整體健康較差者意願較高。(2)願意付費者認為雲端照護服務以系統品質最重要，其次為服務品質和資訊品質。(3)願意付費者對於雲端照護服務的預測因子為婚姻狀態、都市化程度、健康狀況、教育程度以及性別，預測率為69.4%。結論：本結果有助於了解使用雲端照護服務的人的經驗和開發能滿足人們的個性化需求的服務。首應考量資料分享，如電腦化健康紀錄的機密性和安全性，未來可研究探討。