# Information technology acceptance and adoption in the telemedicine sector: a case of Mobile health apps

## TL;DR

This study explores how pharmacists in Kuwait accept and use mobile health apps, identifying key factors like compatibility and performance expectations that influence their adoption.

## Contribution

The study introduces a detailed analysis of behavioral intention predictors and mediation effects in mHealth app adoption by pharmacists in Kuwait.

## Key findings

- Compatibility, performance expectancy, personal innovativeness, and effort expectancy significantly predict pharmacists' behavioral intentions to use mHealth apps.
- Performance expectancy mediates the relationship between compatibility and behavioral intention, as well as between effort expectancy and behavioral intention.
- Effort expectancy and performance expectancy mediate multiple associations involving job demands, professional identity, and social support.

## Abstract

Pharmaceutical care can be improved via mobile health (mHealth) applications (apps); however, the engagement of these apps depends on healthcare providers' acceptance. Thus, identifying barriers and facilitators to utilizing mHealth apps is needed to develop and facilitate their use.

The objective of this research was to investigate the various elements that influence the acceptability and utilization of mHealth apps in the delivery of pharmaceutical care services, as perceived by pharmacists working in the government health sector of Kuwait.

A cross-sectional survey was conducted, and the results were used in the mobile health technology acceptance model (m-TAM) to measure the behavioral intentions of pharmacists with regard to the acceptance and use of mHealth apps.

Multiple elements influence the behavioral intention of pharmacists to use mHealth apps, including Compatibility (CO), Performance Expectancy (PE), Personal Innovativeness (PI) and Effort Expectancy (EE) were statistically significant predictors. The mediating role of PE was found to be statistically significant in the link between CO and BI and in the association between EE and BI. The substantial mediation effects of Effort Expectancy (EE) and Performance Expectancy (PE) were seen in the three associations between job-related mental demands (MA) and burnout (BI), professional identity (PI) and burnout (BI), and perceived social support at work (PSA) and Behavioural Intention (BI). The results further demonstrate that EE substantially mediates the connections between MA and PE, MSE and PE, PI and PE, and PSA and PE.

These results suggest that the acceptance of mHealth apps by pharmacists in Kuwait is multifaceted and requires evaluating a chain of effects. As a result, developing apps that provide pharmaceutical care requires consideration of each one of these factors. Results can direct policymakers and stakeholders in their efforts to implement mHealth in Kuwait.