Intention to use telemonitoring for chronic illness management and its associated factors among nurses and physicians at public hospitals in Bahir Dar, northwest Ethiopia: using a modified UTAUT2 model.

Abstract

Background: Patients with chronic illnesses need to take care of themselves and seek ongoing medical attention. By using technology, telemonitoring can minimize hospitalization and care costs, while increasing professional productivity, providing constant medical attention and enhancing patient self-care management. Despite all these advantages, nothing is known regarding the intentions of Ethiopian professionals and nurses to adopt telemonitoring technologies. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to evaluate the telemonitoring intention of Ethiopian professionals and nurses, as well as the factors related to it.

Methods: A total of 781 randomly chosen nurses and physicians who worked at public hospitals in Bahir Dar City, northwest Ethiopia, participated in a cross-sectional survey. To give everyone an opportunity, the sample size was distributed equitably among the hospitals and the profession according to staffing numbers. The sample was obtained using a simple random sampling technique. Data were gathered by skilled data collectors utilizing a self-administered questionnaire. For additional cleaning and descriptive statistical analysis, the data were imported into EpiData version 4.6 and exported to Statistical Package for Social Science version 25. Analysis of Moment Structure version 23 structural equation modeling was used to ascertain the degree of the association between the variables.

Result: The response rate was 732/781 (93.7%), with 55.7% (408/732) of the participants being men and two-thirds (67.6%, 495/732) being nurses. About 55.9% [95% confidence interval (CI): 52.3-59.6] of respondents intended to use telemonitoring. The desire to employ telemonitoring is positively impacted by performance expectancy (β = 0.375, 95% CI: 0.258-0.494), effort expectancy (β = 0.158, 95% CI: 0.058-0.252), facilitating condition (β = 0.255, 95% CI: 0.144-0.368), and habit (β = 0.147, 95% CI: 0.059-0.233). Age and gender positively affected the link between effort expectancy and intention to employ telemonitoring. It was discovered that being young and male has a beneficial relationship impact. Age positively moderated the association between the intention to use telemonitoring and the facilitating conditions, and adults were strongly linked with the relationship.

Conclusion: In Bahir Dar City public hospitals, over half of the doctors and nurses have the intention to use telemonitoring. Predictive indicators of intention to utilize telemonitoring that were statistically significant were performance expectancy, effort expectancy, facilitating condition, and habit.