Consumer expectations and adoption intention towards mobile health (mHealth) application in Thailand
Keywords:
Consumer expectations, Adoption intention, Mobile health application, e-Healthcare services, Telehealth servicesAbstract
The objectives of this study were to study: 1) consumer expectations towards mobile health (mHealth)
application in Thailand, 2) adoption intentions towards mobile health (mHealth) application in Thailand,
and 3) influence of consumer expectations on adoption intention towards mobile health (mHealth)
application in Thailand. This study employed mixed-method research comprising in-depth qualitative
interviews of 20 informants in February 2023, and a quantitative survey of 339 consumers in Thailand via
Google Form for 3 months starting from March 2023 to May 2023. The qualitative findings using content
analysis indicated that consumer expectations of 42 items for mHealth application. Additionally, 80% of
interviewees were interested in downloading the mHealth application.
According to the Structural Equation Modeling analysis, the indices (TLI = 0.90, CFI = 0.91,
RMR = 0.04, RMSEA = 0.06) indicated that the model fitted the data well. It was found that the second-order
construct of consumer expectations of mHealth application had a positive effect on adoption intentions
towards mHealth application in Thailand at the significance level of 0.05. For academic contributions,
this study fills the research gap in extending the body of knowledge in healthcare industry from customer
perspectives. The findings could be an essential step for future developments of Mhealth service quality
measure based on customer expectations. For practical contributions, the study results provide benefits
for healthcare practitioners including hospitals and clinics as well as software developers in developing
and improving their mHealth applications based on actual customers’ needs. Additionally, this research
encourages government agencies to further study and develop the healthcare applications based on Thai
residents’ expectations.
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