mHealth Self-Monitoring Model for Medicine Adherence of Patients With Diabetes in Resource-Limited Countries: Structural Equation Modeling Approach (Preprint)

Abstract

UNSTRUCTURED The Covid-19 pandemic led to serious challenges; and emphasized the importance of using technology for healthcare operational transformation. Consequently, this has increased the need for technological innovations, thus empowering patients with chronic conditions to tighten up on their adherence to medical prescriptions. The objective of this study was to develop a model for an mHealth self-monitoring system for diabetic patients in rural communities of developing countries. Quantitative data was collected from healthcare providers and used to validate the designed self-monitoring model. Results indicated that environmental factors significantly influence all the independent constructs which inform patients’ change of behaviour towards the use of mHealth self-monitoring for medicine adherence. Technology characteristics such as effort expectancy, self-efficacy, and performance expectancy are equally significant. On the other hand, the contribution of culture and social aspects was found insignificant. The developed model is to be used to extend research into self-monitoring of patients with chronic conditions. More so, the model will be used as a basic architecture for implementation of fully-fledged systems for diabetic patients’ self-monitoring.