A Model for Assessing Sustainability of mHealth Systems in Developing Countries: A Case Study of Kenya Health Sector

Numerous efforts have been mooted in the attempt to exploit the potential in mHealth towards addressing and tackling the growing global disease burden.A survey of literature indicates that a significant number of mHealth projects in developing countries fail the sustainability test, a measure that evaluates the ability of a solution to continuously meet the primary objective.This study sought to develop a model for evaluating the sustainability of mHealth systems.By adopting the exploratory research design; proposed parameters for evaluating sustainability of mHealth system are identified through review of various categories of literatures: evaluation models, mHealth sustainability evaluation models, mHealth experiences in developing countries.Using these factors, a conceptual model is formulated and statistically validated using Partial Least Squares, a component of Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) found in the SmartPLS software.The outcome of the study revealed that sustainability of mHealth systems in developing countries is influenced by nine factors; Management Factors -Ownership, Technological Factors -System Quality, System Interoperability, Technology Sustainability, System Relevance, System Scalability and Individual Factors -User Support, System Access and User satisfaction.The nine factors explained 58.2% of the variance in the sustainability of mHealth system.Ownership, User support, Technology Sustainability and User Satisfaction had the stronger influence on Sustainability of mHealth.The factors explained 13.25%, 11.09%, 8.7% and 7.01% of the variance respectively.Management factor (ownership) was found to have the greatest influence on sustainability of mHealth in developing countries.An evaluation score matrix is also proposed.