A Review of Factors that Increases or Reduces the Adoption of mHealth

International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI) | Volume VI, Issue XII, December 2019 | ISSN 2321–2705

A Review of Factors that Increases or Reduces the Adoption of mHealth

John Stephen Agbenyo

Faculty of Social Science, St. Paul’s University, Kenya

Abstract
Introduction: In the last decade, the world has witnessed the proliferation of mobile telephony across various countries be it developed or developing. This increase is in part due to expansion and the availability of connectivity. Further, there has been a significant increase in the number of mobile phone manufacturers. This has reduced the cost of mobile devices. We can take advantage of technology so as to be able to improve access to healthcare and health information, and to also improve the management of medical and health information as well as access to the latest medical knowledge for healthcare workers.
Methods: Three (3) electronic databases and journals (BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, Elsevier and Google Scholar) were searched with search items including mHealth, Telemedicine, Mobile Health, e-Health, Sub-Saharan Africa, developing countries, low resource countries, behaviour change, adoption of health messages and mobile health solutions. The design focused specifically on empirical research evaluating the effectiveness and the factors influencing the acceptance of mHealth interventions in low income countries not older than 5 years and published in English.
Results: From the search, it was noticed that the qualitative design method was mostly used by the researchers. They found that the extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) is a good predictive model of general people’s intention to use mHealth. Trust, perceived usefulness as well as perceived ease of use have been identified to positively correlated with adoption intention while privacy and performance risks negatively correlated with trust and adoption intention toward mHealth services. The researchers also found that personal innovativeness in Information technology has less significant effect on mHealth adoption. cost is also identified as an important determining factor for mHealth app adoption. The also found that perceived reliability has a significant impact on the adoption of mHealth.
Conclusion: This synthesis paper gives an indication that there still exists some gaps in knowledge in the area of mHealth adoption. None of the papers have specifically focused on the factors that increases or reduces adoption. The papers however provide a set of key guiding elements that paves way for further research on factors that increases or reduces the adoption of mHealth in specific contexts.

Keywords: mHealth, e-health, developing countries

Read More