Prevalence of Mobile Phones and Factors Influencing Usage by Caregivers of Young Children in Daily Life and for Health Care in Rural China: A Mixed Methods Study

IntroductionTo capitalise on mHealth, we need to understand the use of mobile phones both in daily life and for health care.ObjectiveTo assess the prevalence and factors that influence usage of mobile phones by caregivers of young children.Materials and MethodsA mixed methods approach was used, whereby a survey (N=1854) and semi-structured interviews (N=17) were conducted concurrently. The quantitative and qualitative data obtained were compared and integrated. Participants were caregivers of young children in Zhao County, Hebei Province, China.ResultsFour main themes were found: (i) trends in mobile phone ownership; (ii) usage of mobile phone functions; (iii) factors influencing replying to text messages; and (iv) uses of mobile phones for health care. The majority of 1,854 survey participants (1,620; 87.4%) used mobile phones, but usage was much higher among mothers (1,433; 92.6%) and fathers (41; 100.0%) compared to grandparents (142; 54.6%). Parents were able to send text messages, grandparents often not. Factors influencing the decision to reply to text messages in daily life were checking the mobile phone, trusting the sender, emotion or feeling when receiving a text message, the importance of replying and ease of use of text messages. Of 1,620 survey participants who used a mobile phone, about one in four (432; 26.7%) had used it for health care in the past three months and most (1,110; 93.5%) of 1,187 who had not wished to use their phone to receive health information.ConclusionWe found that usage of mobile phones is high, several factors influencing usage and an interest of caregivers to use phones for health care in Zhao County, rural China, which can be used to inform studies in settings with similar characteristics. Future work needs to assess factors influencing mobile phone usage in-depth to optimize experiences of users for specific mHealth-based interventions.

引言 为充分利用移动健康（mHealth）技术，我们需要了解移动电话在日常生活与医疗保健场景中的使用情况。
研究目的 评估幼儿看护者使用移动电话的现状及其影响因素。
材料与方法 本研究采用混合研究方法，同步开展问卷调查（样本量N=1854）与半结构化访谈（样本量N=17），并对获取的定量与定性数据进行对比与整合。研究对象为中国河北省赵县的幼儿看护者。
研究结果 共提炼出四大核心主题：（一）移动电话持有率趋势；（二）移动电话功能使用情况；（三）影响回复短信的相关因素；（四）移动电话在医疗保健领域的应用。在1854名问卷调查参与者中，1620名（占比87.4%）使用移动电话，其中母亲群体（1433名，占比92.6%）与父亲群体（41名，占比100.0%）的使用率显著高于祖父母群体（142名，占比54.6%）。家长群体能够正常发送短信，而祖父母群体则较少使用该功能。影响日常生活中回复短信决策的因素包括：查看移动电话的习惯、对发件人的信任程度、接收短信时的情绪状态、回复短信的必要性以及短信功能的易用性。在1620名使用移动电话的受访者中，约四分之一（432名，占比26.7%）在过去三个月内曾使用移动电话获取医疗健康相关服务；而在未使用过该类服务的1187名受访者中，绝大多数（1110名，占比93.5%）希望通过移动电话接收健康信息。
研究结论 本研究发现，在中国河北省赵县这一农村地区，幼儿看护者的移动电话使用率较高，存在多项影响其使用行为的因素，且看护者对使用移动电话获取医疗健康服务表现出较高意愿，该研究结果可为其他特征相似地区的相关研究提供参考依据。未来研究需深入评估影响移动电话使用的各类因素，以优化基于移动健康的特定干预措施的用户使用体验。