University of Twente Student Theses
Healthcare anytime anywhere : a case study about the facators predicting initial and continuous usage intention of health-related smartphone applications among Dutch users
Krogoll, C. (2015) Healthcare anytime anywhere : a case study about the facators predicting initial and continuous usage intention of health-related smartphone applications among Dutch users.
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| Abstract: | Objective: The healthcare industry is undergoing profound changes resulting from advancements in mobile technology. With promising innovations like mobile health applications or wearable health devices such as the Apple Watch or the Microsoft Fitness Band, consumers are being encouraged to manage their health more independently. Especially health-related smartphone applications hold great potential for improving public health as they offer access to healthcare anytime anywhere. However, little is known about how to achieve effective user adoption. Understanding users’ initial and continuous usage intention of health-related smartphone applications is therefore essential for the success of future mobile health services. Design & Methods: The proposed research model is based on the Extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT 2). It was predicted that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, hedonic motivation, and price value positively affect initial usage intention, while habit replaces price value for continuous usage intention of health-related smartphone applications. The research model was completed with additional factors relevant for health app usage. Usage intentions were therefore predicted to also depend on consumers’ trust in the app provider, the perceived privacy risks, and consumers’ valuation of health. The latter one was also predicted to indirectly affect usage intention through performance expectancy. A one-shot online questionnaire was carried out in the Netherlands to test the proposed hypotheses. To investigate the factors predicting initial and continuous usage intention respectively, participants were split into non-users (N = 160) and users (N = 213) of a health-related smartphone application. Results & Conclusions: Results of hierarchical regression analyses reveal that initial usage intention of healthrelated smartphone applications is determined by performance expectancy, hedonic motivation, the social influence of friends and relatives, as well as by consumers’ trust in the in the app provider; while continuous usage intention is exclusively determined by habit. It was further detected that consumers’ valuation of health has an indirect positive effect on both, initial and continuous usage intention through performance expectancy. Furthermore, results of simple linear regression analyses reveal that trust in the app provider has a significant impact on users’ perceived privacy risks of their most used health app. The results of this study add theoretical knowledge to the field of consumer health technology and give app providers and healthcare practitioners ideas for marketing their services to the Dutch consumers. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 05 communication studies |
| Programme: | Communication Studies MSc (60713) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/67181 |
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