BACKGROUND
Mobile health services (mHealth) is an Australian government initiative aiming to improve the quality of health care services. However, little is known about Australian health consumers’ willingness to accept and use mobile health services (mHealth).
OBJECTIVE
While various factors may impact on users’ willingness to accept mHealth, this research investigates whether users’ demographics have any impact on the implementation of mHealth which has been rarely addressed in an Australian setting in the past
METHODS
The theoretical framework of this research is firmly rooted in extant technology acceptance frameworks. Data was collected using a survey questionnaire from the residents of the Australian Capital Territory and analyzed using multivariate data analysis techniques.
RESULTS
The results indicate that the proposed research model explains 13% of the variance in implementation and its associated F statistics indicated that it was significant at the P <.001 level. Findings show that physical progression (P < .001) and intellectual progression (P= 0.05) of users do influence individuals’ attitudes towards mHealth. However, financial capability (P =.175) has no relationship with attitude but has a direct relationship with MHS usage (P= .02).
CONCLUSIONS
These findings relating to users’ demographics on the attitudes and usage of MHS have both practical and theoretical implications which are highlighted in this paper.