Perceptions of Using Mobile Health Apps (mHealth) During Covid-19 Pandemic In Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: In Saudi Arabia, the Ministry of Health has developed many mhealth apps to control the spread of COVID-19 and to provide healthcare services during the pandemic.  This study aimed to assess the users’ awareness, use, and perceptions toward mhealth apps during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: An online questionnaire was used to collect data from users of mhealth apps.  A convenience sampling method was used and consisted of a sample of 900 individuals.  One-sample Wilcoxon signed-rank test, spearman’s rho correlation, Mann-Whitney, and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to answer the research questions.

Results: A total of 878 respondents completed the survey questionnaire. The most well-known and used app was Tawakklna (96%) followed by Tabaud (68.6%), Seha (64.2%), Mawid (61.4%), and Tataman (56.4%). Social media networking and the MOH website were the most reported methods for gaining knowledge of the mhealth apps.  Almost all the respondents used Tawakklna  (96%), and less than half of them used the other four apps.  Most respondents recognized the purposes of these apps, perceived their benefits, were satisfied with them, and did not face any technical difficulties in their use (p< 0.001). There were significant relationships between the users’ perceptions about the purpose of mhealth, the benefits, satisfaction level, and the perceived technical difficulties in its use (p< 0.01). Married, employed, and older users had a higher understanding of the purpose and had positive perceptions around usefulness of the mhealth apps.  Male and users who earn less than 10 thousand SAR perceive higher technical problems with the apps.

Conclusion: Majority of the mhealth users had positive perceptions in terms of purpose, benefits, satisfaction, and technical difficulties.  With the increasing number of services on mhealth apps, further research is needed to evaluate these apps.