Exploring Public Attitudes toward E-Government Health Applications Used During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from Saudi Arabia

Abstract

This study sought to explore factors that determine the public’s acceptance of and adoption behavior toward e-government health applications launched in Saudi Arabia (SA) by the Ministry of Health (MOH) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research relied on several theories: the technology acceptance model (TAM), information system success model (ISSM), mobile services acceptance model (MSAM), and unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT). The constructs of perceived ease of use (PEOU), perceived usefulness (PU), attitude (ATT), trust (TR), information quality (IQ), facilitating condition (FC), and social influence (SI) were utilized to investigate the user’s intention toward using e-government health applications. The proposed model and its seven hypotheses were tested by conducting a survey across social media among citizens and residents in SA. A total of 785 valid responses were analyzed by SmartPLS and a structural equation modeling technique. After analysis, the results showed that PEOU, PU, ATT, TR, IQ, FC, and SI have positive effects on behavioral intentions. As for contributions, this paper is the first research paper to investigate the adoption of e-government health applications launched by MOH in SA during the COVID-19 pandemic and to provide a theoretical framework for pursuing future research work in a similar scope.

Stimuli Influencing Engagement, Satisfaction, and Intention to Use Telemedicine Services: An Integrative Model

“…The influence of functionality on the CUI (H6b) was not affirmed, thus contradicting past research findings [ 64 ]. The present study supported H7a and H7b, which stated that information quality has a critical effect on satisfaction and the CUI; these results are consistent with those of preceding studies [ 26 , 27 , 41 ]. Moreover, the impacts of engagement on satisfaction (H8a) and the CUI (H8b) were recognized by both the current and former studies [ 22 ].…”

“…Prior research confirmed that improved information quality enhances patients’ attitudes about telemedicine services [ 26 , 27 ]. Moreover, its usefulness encourages consumers to use the telehealth system in the future and advise others to do the same [ 41 ]. Based on these, we propose the following hypothesis:…”

“…Therefore, technology researchers place considerable importance on operating studies, which discern the ways and facts to improve engagement [ 19 ]; this engagement affects consumers’ long-term behavioral outcomes, like AI usage intentions in healthcare [ 22 ] and social network usage in sales [ 72 ]. The stimulating variables in technology adoption were indicated to directly influence consumers’ behavioral intentions [ 29 , 41 , 54 ]. Thus, the mediation test for engagement is reasonable in the technology domain because, without it, we cannot understand the perplexing interplay between the study variables.…”

Investigating Health Managers’ Perspectives of Factors Influencing Their Acceptance of eHealth Services in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: A Quantitative Study

“…While a qualitative extension to this study to explore identified factors in more depth with health managers is planned, the research using the UTAUT model in Saudi Arabia continues to expand [16,[61][62][63]. Indeed in the interim, UTAUT has been adopted to consider eHealth literacy and personal EHR [58], eGovernment health applications [62], pandemic surveillance during the CO-VID-19 outbreak in KSA [63]. Clearly the UTAUT model resonates with practitioners and policy makers in KSA, so this is an opportune time to share the findings of this study.…”

“…Indeed, it has been suggested there is still a need to carry out more research investigating whether adding external constructs to the theory, reducing the current constructs, or modifying the moderators could make a difference to the overall picture the theory is trying to explain [60]. Since this study has been conducted, several research teams have adopted the UTAUT in eHealth studies, including in KSA but none with health managers [61][62][63].…”