Modeling Patients' Acceptance of E-Health

Due to the emerging importance of e-health and the possibility that it can reduce health care costs, we try to explain patients’ behavioral intention to use their provider’s e-health system. Using the survey method to collect data from patients newly registered with an e-health site, we test three models of user acceptance: two well-known models (TAM and the Motivational model) and one that has recently been proposed that integrates the other two. We also include several antecedents to the models including satisfaction with medical care, health knowledge, information-seeking preference, health care need, and Internet dependence. We find that all three models produce similar results from our data and that several of the antecedents have significant effects on the model constructs. For example, satisfaction with medical care positively influences intrinsic motivation, information-seeking preference positively influences perceived ease of use, and Internet dependence positively influences both intrinsic motivation and perceived usefulness.