Track: Information Technology

Abstract

Due to the geographical characteristics of Chile, which make it difficult for people in rural and extreme areas to access health services, in addition to the consequences of the global pandemic COVID-19, telemedicine has emerged as a solution to the gaps in access to medical services. Recently, the use of this technology has been increasing, requiring specific knowledge and skills for the use of this platform, skills which can bring problems for older people. With the purpose of contributing to the literature on the adoption of information technologies, this study seeks to explain the factors that can drive the adoption of telemedicine in older people in the Chilean context, seeking to establish a model for the adoption of telemedicine in older people, as well as to empirically validate this model. This proposal is developed with a combination of partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-
SEM) and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) with the objective of testing the relevance of the proposed determinants in the intention to adopt this technology, in addition, to analyze whether these factors are necessary or sufficient for this behavior to occur. After analyzing a sample of 100 Chilean older people, it was possible to observe through PLS-SEM analysis that effort expectations, performance expectations, social influence, and price value affect the intention to use telemedicine while facilitating conditions have no effect. On the other
hand, the fsQCA analysis highlighted the importance of performance expectations when adopting telemedicine, its presence being a necessary condition, which is present in the two configurations that result in an intention to use, while its negation is a necessary condition for not intending to use telemedicine. Subsequently, the sufficiency analysis supports what was found in the analysis of the necessary conditions, with performance expectations and its
negation being present in all configurations of the presence and negation of intention to use respectively, demonstrating that no single condition or independent variable is sufficient by itself to generate an intention to use telemedicine in older people. Finally, through the predictive validity test, it was possible to prove that the fsQCA model created may be able to predict intention to use in possible additional data. With these results, the study seeks to contribute to the literature on the relationship between the elderly and information technologies through its combination of methodologies and empirical conclusions.