Seniors and mobiles: A qualitative inquiry of mHealth adoption among Singapore seniors

Abstract

Objective: This study examines how seniors in Singapore use mobile devices for healthcare purposes. Methods: Semi-structured interviews with 35 mobile phone users aged between 58 – 82 years old. Results: Seniors regard mobile phones as important personal devices for socialization, security, and emergency purposes. Most of the seniors consider mobile telephony (voice calls and text messaging) as an accessible platform to access healthcare. Perceived usefulness, ease of use, compatibility, technology anxiety, financial cost, and self-efficacy were identified as factors affecting the use of mHealth among seniors. Although a few adopt mHealth applications and mobile Internet for health-information seeking, some younger seniors show enthusiastic attitudes towards its adoption. Additionally, some seniors also have technology anxiety and resistance toward using mHealth applications. Conclusion: Seniors use mobile phones for healthcare purposes in their daily life, and its use involves several facilitators and barriers. Interpersonal training is likely to reduce their anxiety and increase mHealth literacy and adoption. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed