Re-Conceptualizing the Drivers Toward mHealth Adoption in a Least Developing Country: A Qualitative Exploration

Abstract

Despite the recent proliferation of mHealth, the present research has not yet re-conceptualized on how mHealth can be used to promote healthcare over time. Researches have indicated that mHealth adoption and acceptance problems must be re-addressed to provide improved healthcare delivery. It is essential to explore the end-user centric factors for the complex implications process of mHealth before implementing it in practice. This research aims to re-conceptualize the contextual predictors of mHealth adoption in a least developing country. In-depth interviews with purposive and convenient sampling techniques were conducted with end-users ( n = 24) and healthcare professionals ( n = 15) in Bangladesh because qualitative research provides opportunities to explore end-user experiences and get detailed information about how they perceive user engagement in technology adoption. This study used grounded theory and thematic analysis to explain the state of mHealth adoption and to establish a theoretical basis for further investigations. Our findings indicate that traditional predictors for mHealth intention to use might not be enough. This study suggested four new predictors: “patients as a decision support unit,” “personal awareness building,” “health information exchange,” and “reward” to re-conceptualize the mHealth adoption. The study tried to clarify mHealth drivers from both end-users’ and healthcare professionals’ perspectives, which offered an alternative avenue that could provide the foundation for accepting mHealth widely.