eHealth Consumer Behavior

Numerous studies have been conducted on eHealth’s structure, technological aspects, current status, problems and prospects. However, there are only a few studies conducted in regards to the consumer behavior of eHealth. This chapter describes the necessity of behavioral research in eHealth. eHealth initiatives and current status in Bangladesh is reported. The chapter also explores and analyzes the current level of, reasons behind and factors affecting consumer acceptance of Portable Health Clinic (PHC), an e-Health initiative in Bangladesh, currently serving on experimental basis. In order to conduct an in-depth consumer behavior research, a sample of 600 rural respondents has been selected through stratified random sampling method. Data has been collected through structured questionnaire survey and analyzed with statistical tools including central tendency, frequency analysis, chi-square test of association and simple linier regression. This chapter also analyzes consumer’s demographic and socio-economic factors that affect their acceptance of eHealth. Our finding says, consumer’s age, occupation and purchasing power have very strong influence on their acceptance of eHealth services from PHC while their gender, level of education, access to cell phone and previous eHealth knowledge have very insignificant or weaker impact. Finally, the major applications of behavioral research are reported through which eHealth initiatives can be more socially acceptable and financially viable.