Mobile phone use in chronic diseases education and awareness in rural Kenya

Abstract

This study set out to develop an integrated model that could explain the sustainable adoption of mHealth, among the rural populations. With a penetration level of 130%, the ubiquitous mobile phone infrastructure was conducive to implementing mHealth even in the remote and rural regions of Kenya, which otherwise grapple with inequality and inequity of the healthcare system and a rising chronic diseases burden. Whereas mHealth could provide a suitable low-cost solution to disseminate targeted education to the grass-root masses in a short time, its uptake was reported to be low and short- lived. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to evaluate the factors that could explain the low levels of mHealth adoption for education on chronic diseases in the rural settings of the country. From a theoretical perspective, a combination of four social behaviour change theories, three technology adoption models, and two health behaviour change models guided the development of the theoretical framework. Seven factors were subsequently tested: perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, social influence, age, and language literacy, all of which measured mobile phone use for health literacy. Thirteen hypotheses were formulated from these factors.