Fear of Covid-19 and Intentions towards Adopting E-Health Services: Exploring the Technology Acceptance Model in the Scenario of Pandemic

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to investigate the link between fear of Covid-19 and individuals' behavioral intentions toward adopting e-health services by expanding the technology acceptance model (TAM) to incorporate fear of the Covid-19 factor. To empirically testing our proposed theoretical model, we conducted a research survey in Pakistan and collected data from 624 individuals utilizing a non-probability convenience sampling strategy. The outcomes of our study declare that fear of Covid-19 are positively associated with individuals' attitude and their subsequent behavioral intentions towards adopting e-health services. Perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of e-health services mediated the relationship between fear of Covid-19 and individuals' attitude towards adopting e-health services. This research is highly significant in the current scenario of Covid-19. Our study offers a theoretical model to understand why and how fear of Covid-19 is related to an individual's intentions for adopting e-health services. Moreover, this study also extends the literature of the technology acceptance model TAM by pinpoint the impact of fear of Covid-19. Contribution/Originality:This study investigates the link between fear of Covid-19 and individuals' behavioral intentions toward adopting e-health services by expanding the technology acceptance model (TAM) to incorporate fear of the Covid-19 factor. INTRODUCTIONThe world is now battling the Covid-19 infectious disease that has been announced a global high-risk epidemic by the World Health Organization (aka. WHO) (Dalglish, 2020). A new kind of Corona virus initially called novel Corona virus pneumonia (NCP), and subsequently renamed the new Corona Virus in 2019 (2019-nCoV or Covid-19) has badly affected the world. It is the seventh corona virus known to be spread among humans . On December 31, 2019, clusters of cases of Corona virus were formally recorded from Wuhan, Hubei Province, China (Amir, 2020). Since its first outburst in Wuhan, a highly contagious disease, the Corona virus has spread to all parts of the world. To date, the Corona virus (Covid-19) has been confirmed in 198 countries (Iriani & Andjarwati, 2020). Due to the dramatic rise in the number of cases out of doors China, on March 11, 2020, the