Perceptions and knowledge toward mobile-health among the college going students in Coastal South India

Abstract

Background:Among the manifold uses of mobile phones, mobile-health (mHealth) has been an important one, which is the practice of public health initiatives by awareness raising and communication campaigns. Optimum utilization of mHealth is possible only through adequate awareness. Hence, we aimed to study the perceptions and knowledge about mHealth among college going students in Mangalore, India.Materials and Methods:A cross-sectional study was conducted in March 2014 among 627 students in selected engineering (302 students) and medical colleges (325 students) in Mangalore, India. Colleges were selected using convenience sampling (nonrandom) method. Data were collected using semi-structured self-administered questionnaire and analyzed.Results:Overall, 48.9% were males, 61.4% belonged to 18-20 years age group. The awareness about mobile phone health utilities among medical and engineering students was found to be similar. Among those who were aware of the concept of mHealth (74 [11.2%]), 40 (54.1%) were medical students. Marginally higher proportion of medical students felt mHealth could be helpful in protecting the patients’ confidentiality and would help in better communication with the patients.Conclusion:There was high level of general awareness about mHealth among the subjects. However, many specific areas had limited knowledge among both the streams of students, hence highlighting the need for increasing awareness and sensitization.

Perception of male college students of Delhi University regarding the use of mobile health technology as a health promotion tool in India

“…This study was conducted among students studying in non-professional courses in Delhi University and most of them were in the age group of less than 22 years which is comparable to the study on mHealth by Parthaje et al in South India among students studying in professional courses in which more than 60% of the students were in the age group of ≤20 years. 10 Students staying off campus in the current study (64%) matches with a study by Peprah et al in Ghana among University students which shows almost 60% of the students were day scholars. 11 Majority of the study participants were satisfied with the mHealth approach which doesn't interfere in their routine activities and is in line with the findings by Loo about acceptance of healthcare services on mobile phones in which the consumers are interested in using mHealth services and satisfied with this approach as well to a another study conducted in South India where the participants have a positive perception towards mHealth.…”

“…11 Majority of the study participants were satisfied with the mHealth approach which doesn't interfere in their routine activities and is in line with the findings by Loo about acceptance of healthcare services on mobile phones in which the consumers are interested in using mHealth services and satisfied with this approach as well to a another study conducted in South India where the participants have a positive perception towards mHealth. 10,12 A study by Jain et al found that young individuals are more interested in using mobile apps for health related behaviour change which supports our study finding of young college students satisfaction level in using mHealth for lifestyle and behaviour change. 8 While trying to find out the association of the study participants socio-demographic characters (age, course and residence) with their view about the use of mHealth technology as a health promotion tool in India none of the variables were significantly associated with the satisfaction, sharing of messages and rating of mHealth as p>0.05 in all the factors analyzed (Table 3).…”

Mobile health intervention and COVID-19 pandemic outbreak: insights from Indian context

“…The stakeholders in the study are the students and professionals of technical and medical disciplines (n 5 386), general populations including doctors (n 5 409) and health software developers (n 5 17). In both cases, the questionnaire was prepared based on the published articles (Kayyali et al, 2017;Khatun et al, 2014;Atulomah et al, 2010;Parthaje et al, 2016;Ehteshami et al, 2013;Dutta-Bergman, 2004;Davis, 1989;Rai et al, 2013;Venkatesh and Davis, 2000;Defense Acquisition University, 2020;Ryan and Raducha-Grace, 2009). The data were collected from questionnaire survey (online and offline sources) and interviews with software developers.…”

Determinants of individuals’ intention to use mobile health: insights from India

“…Many research studies have been carried out in this domain and across the regions of India. Along the patients’ use-phases, the study included the development of specific mHealth applications or features for creating awareness (AWR) about health and diseases (Parthaje et al , 2016; DeSouza et al , 2014), interventions (Shet et al , 2010; Singh et al , 2018; Bali and Singh, 2007; Praveen et al , 2014) and reminders (Venkat, 2016; NHRM, 2019), diagnosis (Salve et al , 2012; Rangaswamy Thara, 2013; Bhargava et al , 2018) and treatment (Shet et al , 2014; Chandra et al , 2018). This would help healthcare professionals in providing healthcare access and continuous monitoring services to the people living in the low resource setting areas.…”