Determinants of the intention to use mHealth in the future : evidence from an intervention study of patients with chronic diseases in Slovenia

Dolničar, Vesna (author), Petrovčič, Andraž (author), Škafar, Maja (author), Laznik, Jerneja (author), Prevodnik, Katja (author), Hvalič Touzery, Simona (author)

Background: Mobile health (mHealth) implementation is crucial for developing sustainable healthcare systems, but it faces the challenge of user acceptance. Extending traditional acceptance models allows for the cognitive, emotional and social aspects of engaging with mHealth to be captured, creating a more comprehensive understanding of users’ intentions to use it in the future. User-centred intervention studies based on users’ real experiences with mHealth are essential for accurate assessments and for improving upon studies that rely merely on anticipated mHealth use. Methods: An intervention study was conducted with 103 patients with at least one chronic condition (type 2 diabetes and/or arterial hypertension) who had used an mHealth service for three months. They were recruited through purposive sampling at a community health centre in Slovenia. Path analysis was applied to the survey data collected after a three-month testing period to validate an explanatory model with eight hypotheses. Results: The intensity of mHealth use affected usability, which in turn affected acceptability, the psychosocial impacts of engagement with mHealth and intention for future use. The results showed that the intensity of mHealth use did not affect mHealth acceptability. Likewise, acceptability did not affect the psychosocial impacts of engagement with mHealth or the intention for its future use. Notably, perceptions of the psychosocial impacts of mHealth had no significant effect on the intention for future use. Conclusion: Usability and intensity of use play a central role in the post-intervention usage of mHealth, offering valuable insights for policymakers and healthcare providers involved in the delivery of mHealth-based treatment to patients with chronic diseases.

• Language: English
• Keywords: acceptability, chronic disease, mHealth, path analysis, psychosocial impacts, usability
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2024
• Number of pages: 9 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 190, art. 105537
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-159652
• UDC: 004.773.4:61(497.4)
• ISSN on article: 1386-5056
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2024.105537
• COBISS.SI-ID: 202009347
• Publication date in RUL: 17.07.2024

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: International journal of medical informatics
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 1386-5056
• COBISS.SI-ID: 1665556

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: mHealth, kronične bolezni, analiza poti, statistika, Slovenija