m-Health Policy Readiness and Enabling Factors: Comparisons of Sub-Saharan Africa and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Countries.
Telemed J E Health
; 24(11): 908-921, 2018 11.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-29432073
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
As an innovative solution to poor access to care in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), m-health has gained wide attention in the past decade.INTRODUCTION:
Despite enthusiasm from the global health community, LMICs have not demonstrated high uptake of m-health promoting policies or public investment. MATERIALS ANDMETHODS:
To benchmark the current status, this study compared m-health policy readiness scores between sub-Saharan Africa and high-income Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries using an independent two-sample t test. In addition, the enabling factors associated with m-health policy readiness were investigated using an ordinal logistic regression model. The study was based on the m-health policy readiness scores of 112 countries obtained from the World Health Organization Third Global Survey on e-Health.RESULTS:
The mean m-health policy readiness score for sub-Saharan Africa was statistically significantly lower than that for OECD countries (p = 0.02). The enabling factors significantly associated with m-health policy readiness included information and communication technology development index (odds ratio [OR] 1.57; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.12-2.2), e-health education for health professionals (OR 4.43; 95% CI 1.60-12.27), and the location in sub-Saharan Africa (OR 3.47; 95% CI 1.06-11.34).DISCUSSION:
The findings of our study suggest dual policy goals for m-health in sub-Saharan Africa. First, enhance technological and educational support for m-health. Second, pursue global collaboration for building m-health capacity led by sub-Saharan African countries with hands-on experience and knowledge.CONCLUSION:
Globally, countries should take a systematic and collaborative approach in pursuing m-health policy with the focus on technological and educational support.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Telemedicine
/
Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development
/
Health Policy
Type of study:
Health_economic_evaluation
/
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Aspects:
Determinantes_sociais_saude
Country/Region as subject:
Africa
Language:
En
Journal:
Telemed J E Health
Journal subject:
INFORMATICA MEDICA
/
SERVICOS DE SAUDE
Year:
2018
Document type:
Article