Moderating factors influencing adoption of a mobile chronic disease management system in China

ABSTRACT Mobile chronic disease management systems (MCDMS) have become increasingly important in recent years, but in China, challenges remain for their adoption. Existing empirical studies have not completely explored the adoption behavior of potential MCDMS users. This article presents a study in which we investigated factors that influence chronically ill patients in China and their families to adopt or decline to use MCDMS. We applied a research model based on the technology acceptance model (TAM) as well as four contextual constructs (perceived disease threat, perceived risk, initial trust, and technology anxiety) to a survey of 279 potential MCDMS service participants in China. Our key findings include: (1) as consistent with current research, both perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use have positive impact on potential users’ MCDMS adoption intention; (2) both perceived disease threat and initial trust have positive impact on MCDMS adoption intention; (3) the impact of perceived risk is negative, and technology anxiety has negative impact on perceived ease of use of MCDMS; (4) young people place more importance on their perceptions of usefulness, ease of operation, and disease threat than middle-aged and older users; (5) family members are more influenced by their perception of ease of use and disease threat than chronically ill patients, while chronically ill patients place more importance on perceived usefulness than family members. This article concludes by discussing the implications of our study for research and practice, as well as limitations and future research directions.