Factors that Influence Consumers' Adoption Intention of Mobile Health Services in the United States: A Quantitative Stud

The use of mobile health services (MHS) has contributed much to health care services by educating and treating illnesses that are chronic in patients located in various part of the world. However, mobile health services have not achieved its maximum capacity due to the scarcity of adoption among consumers. The purpose of this quantitative correlational study is to examine the relationship among five factors of the unified theory of use and acceptance technology and consumers' adoption intention of MHS in the U.S., controlling for the age of consumers. The five factors (performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions and threat appraisals) were defined in the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology Model (UTAUT). The questionnaire developed by Sun et al. (2013) called the Unified Model of Health Technology Acceptance (UMHTA) were used to measure the five factors and the outcome variable of adoption intention of MHS. The sample size was 92 individuals ages 18 to 65 who owned or had access to technology, and members of Qualtrics' online survey panel. Data was input in SPSS, a statistical program for data analysis. The results of hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that social influence significantly predicted consumers' adoption intention of MHS in the United States, controlling for the age of consumers ( t = 7.76, p < .001). The other four factors of performance expectancy (t = 71, p > .05), effort expectancy (t = .79, p > .05), facilitating conditions (t = 1.80, p > .05), and threat appraisals (t = -1.05, p > .05) did not significantly predict consumers adoption intention. The results of this research study are noteworthy contributions on a practical and theoretical level to the field of mobile health services. A practical recommendation is mobile health providers should work with app developers to design mobile health monitoring apps that permit individuals to connect on a social basis with family and friends to discuss health-related issues. Future research could explore a longitudinal investigation to compare and examine the UTAUT model in dissimilar time epochs, in that way offering an enhanced perception into the acceptance of MHS in the United States of America. Also, future research can expand upon this research study through evaluating the UTAUT2 framework in various provinces in Texas and other parts of the United States.