JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Mobile health applications are increasingly used for people’s health management. The different usage of mobile health applications would lead to different health outcomes. Although active usage of mobile health applications is shown to link to effectiveness of health mobile services, the factors which influence people’s active usage of mobile health applications are not well-studied.

Objective:

This paper aims to examine the antecedents of active usage of mobile health applications.

Methods:

Grounded on the three-factor theory, we propose ten attributes of mobile health applications which influence the active usage of mobile health applications through consumers’ satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Meanwhile, we classify these ten attributes into three categories, i.e., excitement attributes, performance attributes, and basic attributes. Using survey method, 494 valid responses were collected and analyzed using structural equation modelling.

Results:

Our analysis results reveal that both consumer satisfaction (B=0.351, t=6.299, P <0.001) and dissatisfaction (B=-0.251, t=5.119, P <0.001) influence active usage significantly. With regards to the effect of attributes, excitement attributes (B=0.525, t=12.861, P <0.001) and performance attributes (B=0.297, t=6.508, P <0.001) influence consumer satisfaction positively, while performance attributes (B=-0.231, t=3.729, P <0.01) and basic attributes (B=-0.412, t=7.132, P <0.001) influence consumer dissatisfaction negatively. The results of the analysis confirm our proposed hypotheses.

Conclusions:

Our study provides a novel perspective to study the active usage of mobile health applications. By categorizing the attributes of mobile health applications into three categories, the differential effects of different attributes could be tested out. Meanwhile, consumer satisfaction and dissatisfaction are confirmed to be independent from each other.