Understanding gender differences in m-health adoption: a modified theory of reasoned action model

Abstract

Background: Mobile health (m-health) services are becoming increasingly popular in healthcare, but research on m-health adoption is rare. This study was designed to obtain a better understanding of m-health adoption intention.

Materials and methods: We conducted an empirical research of a 481-respondent sample consisting of 44.7% women and 55.3% men and developed a modified theory of reasoned action (TRA) model by incorporating the nonlinearities between attitude and subjective norms and the moderating effect of gender.

Results: The results indicate that, based on the study population in China: (1) facilitating conditions, attitude, and subjective norms are significant predictors of m-health adoption intention; (2) the model including the nonlinearities enhances its explanatory ability; (3) males enjoy a higher level of m-health adoption intention compared with females; (4) the modified TRA model can predict men's behavior intention better than that of women; and (5) males have an Edgeworth-Pareto substitutability between attitude and subjective norms in predicting m-health adoption intention.

Conclusions: Thus, we found gender differences in m-health adoption from the perspective of social psychology.