The level of trust given towards telecare by the family members of older people using the service is extremely important. Family trust may be an influential factor in deciding whether to use such services. This study focuses on older people’s satisfaction with telecare and examines their family’s trust in telecare services. Influences on intention to continue using telecare services are also explored. A questionnaire-based survey on 60 communities dwelling older people who had been receiving telecare services in the past two years was employed. This study developed a satisfaction and trust scale based on previous studies. Our results show that older people’s satisfaction with telecare services and families’ trust were influential in decided whether to continue to use of telecare services. These findings can help medical institutions to better insight into the user experience of telecare to help them provide future services that better comply with clients’ desires and requirements.

Telecare is defined as care practiced at a distance. It is an effective strategy for improving the self-health care management of home-patients with chronic diseases. The purpose of this study was to explore the intent to use of telehealth patients. The correlation between the self-care behaviors, the intent to use of telehealth, and the effects on physiological indicators of patients with chronic disease at home were studied. A cross-sectional study design employing purposive sampling was selected. The structured questionnaire ‘Telecare Usage Intention Scale and Self-Care Behavior Scale’ were used, ‘HbA1c, glucose levels and monthly blood pressure measurements’ were analyzed in this thirteen month study. The self-care behaviors of the participants were positively correlated with their intent to use telehealth (p < 0.01). The results also indicated that HbA1c, glucose levels and frequency BP measurement of the participants improved significantly after using telecare (p < 0.005). The results indicated a strong intent to use telehealth and positive perception of telecare services by in-home patients with a chronic disease. Telehealth improves the self-care behavior of in-home chronic disease patients and enhances medical professionals’ ability to deliver quality and effective healthcare.

In this study we explored caregivers' self-efficacy for managing people aged 65 and over with dementia behavior disturbance (DBD) and examined factors associated with the perception of care burden. A purposive sample of 162 community-dwelling people aged 65 and over with dementia and 162 primary family caregivers in Taiwan participated. The results revealed that frequency of DBD, caregivers' female gender, caregivers' level of education, relationship with care recipient, hours of care, and caregiver's self-efficacy in managing DBD were significantly correlated to the care burden, and explained up to 36.1% of the variance. Moreover, self-efficacy of DBD management in relation to inappropriate sexual behaviors, aggressive behaviors, general aimlessness, and lack of cooperation significantly contributed to the caregivers' perception of care burden. Healthcare professionals could use these results to design appropriate interventions to alleviate the care burden.

Abstract. Telehealth cost analysis has become a crucial issue for governments in recent years. In this study, we examined cases of metabolic syndrome in Hualien County, Taiwan. This research adopted the framework proposed by Marchand to establish a study process. In addition, descriptive statistics, a t test, analysis of variance, and regression analysis were employed to analyze 100 questionnaires. The results of the t test revealed significant differences in medical health expenditure, number of clinical visits for medical treatment, average amount of time spent commuting to clinics, amount of time spent undergoing medical treatment, and average number of people accompanying patients to medical care facilities or assisting with other tasks in the past one month, indicating that offering telehealth care services can reduce health expenditure. The statistical analysis results revealed that customer satisfaction has a positive effect on reducing health expenditure. Therefore, this study proves that telehealth care systems can effectively reduce health expenditure and directly improve customer satisfaction with medical treatment.

Successful telecare services require technical and operational stability and should meet users' needs. In this study our aim was to explore the telecare services commonly used by Taiwanese aged 60 and over (mean age of participants = 65 ± 4.5 years) and how both user satisfaction and trust of the families directly influence continued use intention. A survey was conducted with 120 people living in the community in Eastern Taiwan, 60 of whom were elderly people who had received telecare over a 2-year period, and 60 of the telecare users' family members. The findings revealed that among this group of older adult users telecare continued use intention was significantly associated with their level of satisfaction (p < .01) and their family members' trust (p < .01) of these services. These results should assist medical institutions in understanding the experiences of older adults using telecare and in providing future services that better comply with clients' requirements.Increased life expectancy leads to an increase in the percentage of people in the over-60-age-group relative to the general population, causing numerous medical problems and lifestyle transitions among this age group. Therefore, in order to respond to aging and increasing chronic disease, communication technology has SOCIAL