Technology Acceptance Models

Although technology acceptance, use, and adoption processes have been studied for decades, not all theoretical frameworks or research studies relate directly to health communication. Some applications of acceptance, use, and adoption research to health issues have examined how technologies directly relate to maintaining health, how technologies create barriers to achieving health, and/or how individuals interact with medical systems. Several theories known well in adoption, use, and acceptance scholarship deserve further consideration in continued health communication studies. These theories include the technology acceptance model (TAM), the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT), diffusion of innovations theory (DOI), and uses and gratifications theory (U&G). Newer scholarship has also introduced technological capital (TC), which advances adoption and acceptance modeling by focusing on technological disparities leading to health communication implications.