Public attitudes towards mobile health in Singapore: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: Smartphone-mediated mobile health (mHealth) may assist patients with medication adherence, and disease monitoring. This study aimed to describe awareness and usage of, and attitudes towards, mHealth among the public in Singapore who own a smartphone. It also aimed to identify factors that influenced the above in the study population. Methods: An online cross-sectional survey was administered via convenience sampling in November 2017. Participants were included if they were at least 18 years old and owned a smartphone. No identifiable data was collected. Responses were summarized using descriptive statistics. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to identify factors associated with awareness and usage of, and attitudes towards, mHealth. Results: Participants (n=199) were mostly of Chinese ethnicity (84.4%), female (64.8%), young (mean age 33.7 years), and generally healthy (86.9% reported no chronic medical conditions). On average, participants were aware of 4.4 out of 7 mHealth functions and used 2.2 functions. Managing appointments, and fitness/ diet tracking were the most well-known (93.5% and 82.4% respectively), and widely used (80.6% and 59.8% respectively) functions. A simple interface, data security, and being free to use, were rated as the most important factors influencing participants' willingness to use mHealth. Most (64.3%) participants were keen to learn to use mHealth in future, 49.7% believed mHealth could help improve their health, but only 13.1% were willing to pay for it. Being employed (OR 3.71) was associated with higher mHealth usage, adjusted for baseline smartphone usage. Participants living in non-subsidized housing were more keen to try (OR 3.18), and willing to pay (OR 3.36) for mHealth. Conclusions: Participants generally held positive attitudes towards mHealth, although usage was low. Lack of willingness to pay, and socioeconomic factors, are potential barriers to the widespread adoption of mHealth. Future research specifically involving patients is needed.

Patients’ attitudes towards mobile health in Singapore: a cross-sectional study

“…A previous study by our research team identified generally positive attitudes towards mHealth amongst the general population, albeit with relatively low mHealth usage (as might be expected of generally young and healthy participants) (23). Managing appointments, and fitness and diet tracking were the most popular mHealth functions in terms of both awareness and usage.…”

Women’s Usage Behavior and Perceived Usefulness with Using a Mobile Health Application for Gestational Diabetes Mellitus: Mixed-Methods Study

“…Singapore is in the best position to develop mHealth applications to manage GDM because of the increased smartphone penetration and high prevalence of GDM. Recent studies from Singapore have shown that mHealth usage for disease monitoring ranges from 20% to 33% [ 9 , 10 ]. Despite this, we believe that mothers with GDM are highly likely to be receptive to mHealth application usage in GDM [ 1 ].…”

Investigating the attitude of patients with chronic diseases about using mobile health

“…Hossain in his study on public attitudes towards the mHealth technology (13) came to this conclusion that although the majority of the people were informed of the applications of the technology, they were rarely accustomed to use this technology so that only 13 percent of the patients were agreed to pay for interventions provided through the mobile applications. In line with the results of our study and that of the others, the expenditure of the mHealth is supposed as one of the main barriers to its application (13;21).…”

“…Various studies have addressed the attitudes of patients with diabetes and cardiovascular diseases towards mHealth technology (13)(14)(15)(16). To our knowledge, there is no study surveying the attitude and willingness of patients with chronic disease to use mHealth technology in Iran.…”