Abstract
BackgroundChanging population demographics and technology developments have resulted in growing interest in the potential of consumer-facing digital health. In the United Kingdom, a £37 million (US $49 million) national digital health program delivering assisted living lifestyles at scale (dallas) aimed to deploy such technologies at scale. However, little is known about how consumers value such digital health opportunities.ObjectiveThis study explored consumers’ perspectives on the potential value of digital health technologies, particularly mobile health (mHealth), to promote well-being by examining their willingness-to-pay (WTP) for such health solutions.MethodsA contingent valuation study involving a UK-wide survey that asked participants to report open-ended absolute and marginal WTP or willingness-to-accept for the gain or loss of a hypothetical mHealth app, Healthy Connections.ResultsA UK-representative cohort (n=1697) and a dallas-like (representative of dallas intervention communities) cohort (n=305) were surveyed. Positive absolute and marginal WTP valuations of the app were identified across both cohorts (absolute WTP: UK-representative cohort £196 or US $258 and dallas-like cohort £162 or US $214; marginal WTP: UK-representative cohort £160 or US $211 and dallas-like cohort £151 or US $199). Among both cohorts, there was a high prevalence of zeros for both the absolute WTP (UK-representative cohort: 467/1697, 27.52% and dallas-like cohort: 95/305, 31.15%) and marginal WTP (UK-representative cohort: 487/1697, 28.70% and dallas-like cohort: 99/305, 32.5%). In both cohorts, better general health, previous amount spent on health apps (UK-representative cohort 0.64, 95% CI 0.27 to 1.01; dallas-like cohort: 1.27, 95% CI 0.32 to 2.23), and age had a significant (P>.00) association with WTP (UK-representative cohort: −0.1, 95% CI −0.02 to −0.01; dallas-like cohort: −0.02, 95% CI −0.03 to −0.01), with younger participants willing to pay more for the app. In the UK-representative cohort, as expected, higher WTP was positively associated with income up to £30,000 or US $39,642 (0.21, 95% CI 0.14 to 0.4) and increased spending on existing phone and internet services (0.52, 95% CI 0.30 to 0.74). The amount spent on existing health apps was shown to be a positive indicator of WTP across cohorts, although the effect was marginal (UK-representative cohort 0.01, 95% CI 0.01 to 0.01; dallas-like cohort 0.01, 95% CI 0.01 to 0.02).ConclusionsThis study demonstrates that consumers value mHealth solutions that promote well-being, social connectivity, and health care control, but it is not universally embraced. For mHealth to achieve its potential, apps need to be tailored to user accessibility and health needs, and more understanding of what hinders frequent users of digital technologies and those with long-term conditions is required. This novel application of WTP in a digital health context demonstrates an economic argument for investing in upskilling the population to promote access and expedite uptake and utilization of such digital health and well-being apps.
Highlights
BackgroundGlobally, more than 50% of the world population owns a mobile device, rising to nearly 90% in the developed world [1]
This study demonstrates that consumers value mobile health (mHealth) solutions that promote well-being, social connectivity, and health care control, but it is not universally embraced
There was an increase in WTP, relative to the reference level of less than £14,999 (US $19,819); this was not significant beyond £15,000 to 29,999 (US $19,821 to $39,641). Such confounders suggest that our study demonstrates that there is clear evidence to support the rationale for developing mHealth as a new supporting method for health care delivery, inherently their use or appropriateness may not be solely reliant on income but perhaps existing familiarity and acceptance for these forms of health-related technologies as a norm or part of daily routine
Summary
BackgroundGlobally, more than 50% of the world population owns a mobile device, rising to nearly 90% in the developed world [1]. Digital health is seen as having the potential to transform health care [3] at a time when changing population demographics and rising levels of chronic illness and multimorbidity (the presence of 2 or more long-term conditions) make change imperative [4] This opportunity presents a number of challenges as developers must tackle a current underuse of readily available digital health innovations and there is a need for more evidence to aid understanding of what is of value to users [5]. Mobile health (mHealth), refers to raising awareness of health information via mobile or wireless devices and has the potential to provide an alternative, less resource-intensive delivery of health to a changing population [7,8] In their most recent communications report, Ofcom declared the United Kingdom to be a smartphone society, with more than 60% of the population owning a smartphone [9]. Little is known about how consumers value such digital health opportunities
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
