Factors Influencing the Elderly's Adoption of mHealth: An Empirical Study Using Extended UTAUT2 Model

Abstract

Background: mHealth (mobile health) has a far-reaching impact on delivering health services to a low-resource and remote population, especially elderlies with regular and emergency health needs in developing nations. Even though the high usage of mobile phones in daily life in developing countries like Bangladesh, adoption, and usage of mHealth services have been significantly low among the elderly population. Hence, this study aimed to identify key factors that influence elderlies’ intention to adopt and use mHealth services by extending the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) model.Methods: A face-to-face structured questionnaire survey method was used to collect data from 493 elderlies (aged 60 years and above) in Bangladesh. The data were analyzed with the Structural Equations Modelling (SEM) and Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA).Results: SEM results suggested that Social Influence, Hedonic Motivation, Price Value, Habit, and Service Quality had significant impact (p<0.05) on the elderlies’ behavioral intention to adopt mHealth services. Service Quality, Quality of Life, and elderlies’ Habit were found significant in explaining the Use Behavior of mHealth services. Quality of Life did not show significant (p>0.05) effect on Behavioral Intention which is inconsistent with existing literature. In addition, fsQCA findings suggest how the intensity of the influencers may contribute to high vs low m-health behavioral outcomes.Conclusions: The findings have significant implications for theory, practice and future research as explained in the concluding section of the paper. The extension of UTUAT2 in this study would contribute in the literature of mHealth especially considering the fact that elderlies' quality of life is an important determinant of the continued mHealth use behavior. Overall, the findings may contribute to shaping appropriate policies for designing and implementing mHealth services effectively for elderlies in developing countries.

Understanding the Drivers of Ghanaian Citizens' Adoption Intentions of Mobile Health Services

“…The major theoretical contributions of this study are that this is one of the first studies to have validated the significant impact of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived risk, mobile self-efficacy, and WOM communications on the recommendation intentions of m-health adoption. The unique findings are different from studies that have also examined m-health adoption ( 130 , 131 ). These contributions have provided empirical support for the extension of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) in the context of m-health adoption and, thus, are an important addition to the m-health adoption literature.…”