Knowledge, attitude, and use of mHealth technology among students in Ghana: A university-based survey

Prince Peprah; Emmanuel Mawuli Abalo; Williams Agyemang-Duah; Razak M Gyasi; Okwei Reforce; Julius Nyonyo; Godfred Amankwaa; Jones Amoako; Paulinus Kaaratoore

doi:10.1186/s12911-019-0947-0

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Knowledge, attitude, and use of mHealth technology among students in Ghana: A university-based survey

Journal article

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Knowledge, attitude, and use of mHealth technology among students in Ghana: A university-based survey

Prince Peprah, Emmanuel Mawuli Abalo, Williams Agyemang-Duah, Razak M Gyasi, Okwei Reforce, Julius Nyonyo, Godfred Amankwaa, Jones Amoako and Paulinus Kaaratoore

BMC medical informatics and decision making, Vol.19(1), pp.1-11

12/11/2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-019-0947-0

PMCID: PMC6852777

PMID: 31718642

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Abstract

Ghana

Integration

Knowledge

KNUST

mHealth

University students

Utilization

Background Interest 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. Methods Using 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. Results Knowledge 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. Conclusion Findings 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.

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Title: Knowledge, attitude, and use of mHealth technology among students in Ghana: A university-based survey
Creators: Prince Peprah - Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
Emmanuel Mawuli Abalo - Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
Williams Agyemang-Duah - Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
Razak M Gyasi - African Population and Health Research Center
Okwei Reforce - Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
Julius Nyonyo - Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
Godfred Amankwaa - Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
Jones Amoako - Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
Paulinus Kaaratoore - Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
Publication Details: BMC medical informatics and decision making, Vol.19(1), pp.1-11
Publisher: BioMed Central
Identifiers: 991013036329402368
Copyright: © The Author(s). 2019 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated
Academic Unit: National Centre for Naturopathic Medicine
Language: English
Resource Type: Journal article

Knowledge, attitude, and use of mHealth technology among students in Ghana: A university-based survey

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