Explaining the mobile health services acceptance from different age groups: A protection motivation theory perspective

With the rapid development of the mobile devices, there arouses great interest in mobile health service. As a new phenomenon, previous studies tend to investigate the adoption behavior in terms of the general population or one special population. In order to target more populations as potential customers, our study will use protection motivation theory (PMT) to explain the mobile health services acceptance of difference age groups. During the research, the hypothesized model is tested using data collected from a field survey of 492 potential customers of three difference age groups. The results revealed that response efficacy and self efficacy had a significant impact on adoption intention for the group of young adults and middle age people, while for the group of the elderly, only self efficacy determined the intention to use mobile health service. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.