Taiwanese middle-aged and elderly patients’ acceptance and resistance toward the health cloud

Abstract

As the Taiwanese society ages, the demand for cloud services is rising, particularly among middle-aged and elderly patients, since it enables people to live independently and access health care easily. Despite cloud services great potential, there are gaps in our understanding of how patients evaluate change related to the health cloud and why they resist it. In keeping with the technology acceptance and status quo bias perspectives, this study develops an integrated model to explain middle-aged and elderly patients’ intention to use and resistance to health cloud services. A field survey was conducted in Taiwan to collect data from middle-aged and elderly patients. The structural equation model was used to examine the data. The results showed that patients’ resistance to use health cloud services was caused by sunk costs, inertia, and transition costs. Attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavior control have positive and direct effects on behavioral intention to use. The results also indicate a significant negative effect in the relationship between middle-aged and elderly patients’ intention and resistance to using the health cloud. Our research illustrates the importance of incorporating user resistance into technology acceptance studies in general and health technology usage studies in particular. There are grounds for a resistance model that can serve as the starting point for future studies in this relatively unexplored, yet potentially fertile, area of research.