Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Human Factors
Date Submitted: Feb 1, 2022
Date Accepted: Apr 22, 2022
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Socio-demographic digital divide in mHealth app use among clients at outpatient departments in Inner Mongolia, China: a cross-sectional study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Mobile health (mHealth) applications (apps) have become an infrastructure for access to healthcare in hospitals, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, but little is known about the effects of socio-demographic characteristics on the digital divide in the use of hospital-based mHealth apps and its benefits to patients and caregivers.
Objective:
To document the cascade of influences from digital access to digital use, then to mHealth use, and the influence of socio-demographic variables on the element of the cascade.
Methods:
A cross-sectional survey was conducted from January to February 2021 among adult clients at outpatient departments in twelve tertiary hospitals of Inner Mongolia. Structural equation model was conducted after the construct of digital access, use and mHealth use was validated.
Results:
Of 2,115 participants, the standardized coefficients β (95% CI) of influence of digital access on digital use and digital use on mHealth use was 0.28 (0.22, 0.34), 0.51 (0.38, 0.64), respectively. Elderly subjects were disadvantaged in mHealth access and use (β=-0.38 and -0.41), low educated subgroups (β= -0.24 and -0.27) as well, these two factors had non-significant directs effect on mHealth use.
Conclusions:
To overcome the mHealth use divide, it is important to improve digital access and digital use among the elderly and the low educated groups.
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