Abstract
BackgroundInterest in mHealth interventions, defined as the use of mobile phones to access healthcare is increasingly becoming popular globally. Given its technology-based applications, university students may be key clients of the mHealth adoption but studies are rare in sub-Saharan Africa. This study provides a snapshot and baseline evidence on knowledge, attitude and use of mHealth among university students in Ghana.MethodsUsing a self-administered questionnaire, we collected data between April and June 2017 from 963 randomly sampled undergraduate students at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). Pearson’s Chi-square (χ2) test assessed the differences between variables whilst logistic regression models estimated the independent predictors of use of mHealth with p < 0.05 as significant.ResultsKnowledge on mHealth was moderately high. Specifically, more than half of the sample reported awareness of mHealth although the prevalence of use of mHealth stood at 51%. Logistic regressions revealed that mHealth use was positively associated with respondents’ year (second year: OR = 1.704, 95% CI: 1.185–2.452, and third year: OR = 1.528, 95% CI: 1.060–2.202), and monthly income (OR:3.112, 95%CI: 1.180-8.211). However, ethnicity [(OR = 0.761, 95% CI (0.580–0.997)] was negatively associated with the use of mHealth technology.ConclusionFindings suggest that knowledge of mHealth among university students is low. Policy and public health interventions for urgent awareness creation and promotion of use of mHealth as well as its possible integration into the mainstream healthcare system in Ghana are timely.
Highlights
Interest in Mobile Health (mHealth) interventions, defined as the use of mobile phones to access healthcare is increasingly becoming popular globally
Conducting this study at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) is envisaged to provide specific information that could be extrapolated to serve as a measure to determine mHealth knowledge and utilisation among the general population given that universities often serve as a bridge between the academic world and the society
This study teases out insight into access, knowledge and utilisation of mobile phones for healthcare among undergraduate students in KNUST, Ghana
Summary
Interest in mHealth interventions, defined as the use of mobile phones to access healthcare is increasingly becoming popular globally. Use of mobile phones (mHealth) to access healthcare including treatment, emergency medical response and education is gaining attention worldwide as a complementary strategy for strengthening health systems emphasizing the role of current environmental and technological improvements in the lives of people [1]. MHealth has emerged as a viable solution for wide-ranging challenges in healthcare delivery in LMICs, including Ghana as a result of high community mobile phone penetration and a shortage in the health workforce, [10, 11]. There is a growing global trend in harnessing this technology for behavioural change, disease surveillance, prevention and control [19] as well as promoting health-related attitudes and behaviours such as weight reduction [20], physical activity [21] and smoking cessation [22, 23]. Large, interventions delivered through mobile phones have the tendency of empowering service users with greater choice and control over their health care needs [24]
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