CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR EXPLORING THE INTENTION AND USAGE OF MOBILE HEALTH APPLICATIONS

Abstract

Mobile Health Application is one of the most promising technologies make people more self-sufficient with their health in relation to their lifestyle management for health promotion and protection. mHealth services have been widely implemented worldwide, their adoption is slow. Hence adoption of mHealth is influenced by many factors which must be addressed by mHealth services providers. The aim of this study is to identify the factors and propose a model for adoption of mHealth applications for lifestyle management by extending the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model to include health consciousness. Therefore, this study attempts to bridge the gap in the literature by identifying the factors that influence people to adopt and use mobile health applications. The study addresses the adoption factors from UTAUT perspectives. The proposed conceptual framework determinants are from UTAUT: performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating condition and health consciousness. The findings of this study reveal that the antecedents affect behavioural usage of mobile health applications. And also the UTAUT factors along with health consciousness significantly influences behavioural intention to use mHealth services. The findings of this study help both users and application developers to design evidence-based mHealth interventions that meet consumers’ needs and interests. The results of this study will be useful for government organizations, mobile phone carriers, decision-makers in the fields of policy and healthcare, as well as NGOs in developing nations.