Cited by 40Mobile Health and mHealth ApplicationsHealth, Technology, Consumer BehaviorTechnology Adoption and User Behaviour

A Comprehensive Picture of Factors Affecting User Willingness to Use Mobile Health Applications

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Fan, Shaojing, Jain, Ramesh C., Kankanhalli, Mohan S.·2024·ACM Transactions on Computing for Healthcare

Abstract

Mobile health (mHealth) applications have become increasingly valuable in preventive healthcare and in reducing the burden on healthcare organizations. The aim of this article is to investigate the factors that influence user acceptance of mHealth apps and identify the underlying structure that shapes users’ behavioral intention. An online study that employed factorial survey design with vignettes was conducted, and a total of 1,669 participants from eight countries across four continents were included in the study. Structural equation modeling was employed to quantitatively assess how various factors collectively contribute to users’ willingness to use mHealth apps. The results indicate that users’ digital literacy has the strongest impact on their willingness to use them, followed by their online habit of sharing personal information. Users’ concerns about personal privacy only had a weak impact. Furthermore, users’ demographic background, such as their country of residence, age, ethnicity, and education, has a significant moderating effect. Our findings have implications for app designers, healthcare practitioners, and policymakers. Efforts are needed to regulate data collection and sharing and promote digital literacy among the general population to facilitate the widespread adoption of mHealth apps.

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Research works printed but not linked: 4

  1. [19]19. Ming Fan, Le Yu, Sen Chen, Hao Zhou, Xiapu Luo, Shuyue Li, Yang Liu, Jun Liu, and Ting Liu. 2020. An empirical evaluation of GDPR compliance violations in Android mHealth apps. In Proceedins of the 2020 IEEE 31st International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering (ISSRE). IEEE, 253-264.
  2. [30]30. Laleh Jalali and Ramesh C. Jain. 2013. Building health persona from personal data streams. In PDM@ ACM Multimedia. 19-26.
  3. [71]71. Chen Wang and Huiying Qi. 2021. Influencing factors of acceptance and use behavior of mobile health application users: Systematic review. In Healthcare, Vol. 9. MDPI, 357.
  4. [75]75. Pei Wu, Runtong Zhang, Xiaomin Zhu, and Manlu Liu. 2022. Factors influencing continued usage behavior on mobile health applications. In Healthcare, Vol. 10. MDPI, 208.

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Authors
Fan, S., Jain, R. C., & Kankanhalli, M. S.
Affiliations
  • National University of Singapore (SG)
  • University of California, Irvine (US)
Venue
ACM Transactions on Computing for Healthcare
Published
2024-01-13
Volume
5
Issue
1
Pages
1-31
ISSN
  • 2637-8051 (ISSN-L)
  • 2691-1957
OpenAlex
W4387496061
Cited by
40
References
75
Citations by year
2026: 17 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 8
FWCI
14.24
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • ACM Transactions on Computing for Healthcare (publishedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • arXiv (Cornell University) (cc-by)
Funders
National Research Foundation, Singapore under its Strategic Capability Research Centres Funding Initiative
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Mobile Health and mHealth Applications
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › Health Information Management › Health, Technology, Consumer Behavior
  • Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Information Systems and Management › Technology Adoption and User Behaviour
Keywords
mobile health apps, user acceptance, willingness to use, digital literacy, privacy concerns, behavioral intention, demographic moderators, cross-cultural comparison, preventive medicine

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