Effect of digital gap on virtual care in the time of COVID-19 pandemic: empirical evidence in Taiwan

ABSTRACT

Decent internet usage rates make Taiwan a case to succeed in virtual care practices during the pandemic. We investigate how internet usage rates across regions condition Taiwan’s varieties, concerns, and expectations for virtual care. During the semi-lockdown, we fielded an online census of the managers of care programs for people with disabilities (PWDs). 70% of the PWDs care programs provide three to four virtual care types. Concerned about the PWDs’ degeneration and their family caregivers’ capacity, respondents expect empowerment of their programs. High internet usage rates facilitate more diversified virtual care, fewer concerns, and various expected assistance.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• virtual care
• people with disabilities
• internet usage rates
• Taiwan

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary Material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/02185385.2023.2210112

Ethics

The study is IRB approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee at National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan

Notes

1. Due to the outbreak of COVID, the 2020 annual report is not yet available. The internet usage rates across regions presumably stay the same so that we use the dataset in the 2019 report for calculation. Source: https://www.ndc.gov.tw/cp.aspx?n=55c8164714dfd9e9&fbclid=IwAR1iDAqFhvuzYOcNTIJ6q6JQJWkKgZpSWto5fAMQBRXkW0_6leBhMnxWCMg.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan [MOST 108–2410–H–031–065–MY2].

Notes on contributors

Yi-Chun Chou

Yi-Chun Chou is a professor in the Department of Sociology, Soochow University, Taipei, Taiwan. Her research interests include comparative analysis of social policies, social insurance, social policies of the European Union, welfare policies for disabilities, and theories of social welfare.

Hsin-Hsin Pan

Hsin-Hsin Pan is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology, Soochow University, Taipei, Taiwan. Her research interests cover political sociology, social psychology, survey methods, and the social foundation for political transformation in contemporary China.