Abstract:
Background: Informal mHealth practice is the use of personal mobile phones by healthcare providers to communicate with patients, record patient data, offer health education, refer patients, and track patient progress to improve healthcare service coverage, access, and quality in low-resource settings. However, the real practice of informal mHealth in Ethiopia was unknown.
Objective: The study aimed to assess informal mHealth practice and its associated factors among healthcare providers working at referral hospitals in the Amhara region, Ethiopia, 2023.
Methods: A cross-sectional quantitative method study design supported with qualitative method was conducted from March, 2023 to April, 2023. 423 healthcare providers were selected by simple random sampling. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data. Epi Data version 4.6 was used for data entry and Stata version 14 for data analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to describe dependent and independent variables. The binary logistic regression analysis method was used to identify factors associated with the informal mHealth practice. The adjusted odds ratio and 95% confidence interval were used to determine the strength of the association between the outcome and independent variables. A p-value < 0.05 was used to declare statistical significance. Eight in-depth interview using semi-structured guide was conducted, and thematic analysis was used for the qualitative portion of the study.
Result: The proportion of informal mHealth practice among healthcare providers was found to be 55.91% (95.9% response rate). Being male [AOR=2.38, 95%CI =(1.45,3.92)], had internet access [AOR=2.26, 95%CI= (1.39,3.65)], had favorable knowledge [AOR=1.96, 95%CI= (1.21,3.17)], had a positive attitude [AOR=2.30, 95%CI= (1.42,3.3.74)], and had data privacy concerns [AOR=0.319, 95%CI= (0.197,0.519)] were found to be the factors influencing informal mHealth practice. Conclusion and Recommendation: Overall, more than half of the respondents working at referral hospitals had informal mHealth practice. Sex, internet access, knowledge, attitude, and data privacy concerns were major determinants for the informal mHealth practice. Focusing on increasing the level of awareness, attitude and taking data privacy measures could improve informal mHealth practice.
