Liang Te-Hsin
Department of Statistics and Information Sciences, College of Management, Fu Jen Catholic University, New Taipei County, Taiwan.
J Med Internet Res. 2012 Feb 13;14(1):e11. doi: 10.2196/jmir.1670.
The digital divide usually refers to access or usage, but some studies have identified two other divides: awareness and demand (want). Given that the hierarchical stages of the innovation adoption process of a customer are interrelated, it is necessary and meaningful to analyze the digital divide in eHealth services through three main stages, namely, awareness, want, and adoption.
By following the three main integrated stages of the innovation diffusion theory, from the customer segment viewpoint, this study aimed to propose a new matrix analysis of the digital divide using the awareness, want, and adoption gap ratio (AWAG). I compared the digital divide among different groups. Furthermore, I conducted an empirical study on eHealth services to present the practicability of the proposed methodology.
Through a review and discussion of the literature, I proposed hypotheses and a new matrix analysis. To test the proposed method, 3074 Taiwanese respondents, aged 15 years and older, were surveyed by telephone. I used the stratified simple random sampling method, with sample size allocation proportioned by the population distribution of 23 cities and counties (strata).
This study proposed the AWAG segment matrix to analyze the digital divide in eHealth services. First, awareness and want rates were divided into two levels at the middle point of 50%, and then the 2-dimensional cross of the awareness and want segment matrix was divided into four categories: opened group, desire-deficiency group, perception-deficiency group, and closed group. Second, according to the degrees of awareness and want, each category was further divided into four subcategories. I also defined four possible strategies, namely, hold, improve, evaluate, and leave, for different regions in the proposed matrix. An empirical test on two recently promoted eHealth services, the digital medical service (DMS) and the digital home care service (DHCS), was conducted. Results showed that for both eHealth services, the digital divides of awareness, want, and adoption existed across demographic variables, as well as between computer owners and nonowners, and between Internet users and nonusers. With respect to the analysis of the AWAG segment matrix for DMS, most of the segments, except for people with marriage status of Other or without computers, were positioned in the opened group. With respect to DHCS, segments were separately positioned in the opened, perception-deficiency, and closed groups.
Adoption does not closely follow people's awareness or want, and a huge digital divide in adoption exists in DHS and DHCS. Thus, a strategy to promote adoption should be used for most demographic segments.
数字鸿沟通常指的是接入或使用情况，但一些研究还发现了另外两种鸿沟：认知和需求（意愿）。鉴于客户创新采用过程的各个层次阶段相互关联，通过认知、意愿和采用这三个主要阶段来分析电子健康服务中的数字鸿沟是必要且有意义的。
本研究从客户群体的角度出发，遵循创新扩散理论的三个主要综合阶段，旨在提出一种使用认知、意愿和采用差距比（AWAG）对数字鸿沟进行新的矩阵分析方法。我比较了不同群体之间的数字鸿沟。此外，我对电子健康服务进行了实证研究，以展示所提出方法的实用性。
通过对文献的回顾和讨论，我提出了假设和一种新的矩阵分析方法。为了检验所提出的方法，通过电话对3074名15岁及以上的台湾受访者进行了调查。我采用分层简单随机抽样方法，样本量根据23个市县（层）的人口分布进行分配。
本研究提出了AWAG群体矩阵来分析电子健康服务中的数字鸿沟。首先，将认知率和意愿率在50%的中点处分为两个水平，然后将认知和意愿群体矩阵的二维交叉分为四类：开放组、意愿不足组、认知不足组和封闭组。其次，根据认知和意愿的程度，每个类别进一步细分为四个子类别。我还为所提出矩阵中的不同区域定义了四种可能的策略，即保持、改进、评估和放弃。对最近推广的两项电子健康服务，即数字医疗服务（DMS）和数字家庭护理服务（DHCS）进行了实证检验。结果表明，对于这两项电子健康服务，在人口统计学变量之间，以及在有电脑者和无电脑者之间、互联网用户和非用户之间，都存在认知、意愿和采用方面的数字鸿沟。关于DMS的AWAG群体矩阵分析，除婚姻状况为“其他”或没有电脑的人群外，大多数群体都处于开放组。关于DHCS，各群体分别处于开放组、认知不足组和封闭组。
采用情况并不紧密跟随人们的认知或意愿，在数字医疗服务和数字家庭护理服务中存在巨大的采用方面的数字鸿沟。因此，对于大多数人口群体应采用促进采用的策略。
