Drivers of Mobile Health Acceptance and Use From the Patient Perspective: Survey Study and Quantitative Model Development (Preprint)

Abstract

<sec> <title>BACKGROUND</title> <p>Mobile health (mHealth) has potential to play a significant role in realizing a reversal of the current paradigm in health care toward a more patient-centric and more collaborative system to improve the outcomes obtained along with the quality and sustainability of health care systems.</p> </sec> <sec> <title>OBJECTIVE</title> <p>The aim of this study was to explore and understand individual mHealth acceptance drivers between two groups of users: those with chronic health conditions and those without.</p> </sec> <sec> <title>METHODS</title> <p>The extended unified theory of acceptance and usage of technology (UTAUT2) was enhanced with a new health-related framework: behavior intention to recommend and new mediation effects. We applied partial least squares (PLS) causal modeling to test the research model.</p> </sec> <sec> <title>RESULTS</title> <p>We obtained 322 valid responses through an online questionnaire. The drivers of behavior intention with statistical significance were performance expectancy (β=.29, &lt;i&gt;P&lt;/i&gt;&amp;lt;.001), habit (β=.39, &lt;i&gt;P&lt;/i&gt;&amp;lt;.001), and personal empowerment (β=.18, &lt;i&gt;P&lt;/i&gt;=.01). The precursors of use behavior were habit (β= .47, &lt;i&gt;P&lt;/i&gt;&amp;lt;.001) and personal empowerment (β=.17, &lt;i&gt;P&lt;/i&gt;=.01). Behavior intention to recommend was significantly influenced by behavior intention (β=.58, &lt;i&gt;P&lt;/i&gt;&amp;lt;.001) and personal empowerment (β=.26, &lt;i&gt;P&lt;/i&gt;&amp;lt;.001). The model explained 66% of the total variance in behavior intention, 54% of the variance in use behavior, and 70% of the variance in behavior intention to recommend.</p> </sec> <sec> <title>CONCLUSIONS</title> <p>Our study demonstrates a significant role of personal empowerment, as a second-order construct, in the mHealth acceptance context. The presence of a chronic health condition predicates an impact on acceptance of this technology.</p> </sec>