Alipour Jahanpour, Mehdipour Yousef, Zakerabasali Somayyeh, Karimi Afsaneh
Health Human Resources Research Center, School of Health Management and Information Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
Department of Health Information Technology, School of Paramedical, Torbat Heydarieh University of Medical Sciences, Torbat Heydarieh, Iran.
PLoS One. 2025 Mar 10;20(3):e0316631. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0316631. eCollection 2025.
Nurses and patients can now ensure access to qualified healthcare using the new opportunities of mobile health (mHealth) applications (or apps). To use its potential effectively, understanding nurses' use of this technology is crucial. Here, we examined the awareness, attitudes, and obstacles to using mHealth apps among nurses.
We applied a descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study from 08/04/2023 to 05/10/2023. Cochran's formula estimated the sample size of 267 nurses. The researchers used a researcher-made questionnaire for data collection. We used descriptive (mean, standard deviation, frequency, and percentage) and analytical (Pearson and Spearman correlation) statistics for data analysis.
Most nurses use a smartphone (86%), have an Android operating system installed (82%), and believe that mHealth is useful for nursing (85%), but do not use it for patient care (70.8%). The mean score for awareness, attitude, and obstacles regarding mHealth were 3.74 ± 0.657, 3.49 ± 0.513, and 3.50 ± 0.597 respectively. There was a significant positive correlation between the nurses' awareness and attitude (r = 0. 289, P < 0.05) and nurses' awareness and obstacles to using mHealth (r = 0. 171, P < 0.05), but a significant negative correlation between nurses' attitude and obstacles (r = -0. 031, P < 0.05).
Despite nurses' relatively favorable awareness and positive attitude towards the use of mHealth apps, most of them use these technologies for purposes other than patient care. Nurses considered patients' lack of digital health literacy (DHL) and reluctance to use these technologies as the main obstacles to using mHealth apps. Improving the DHL of users (nurses and especially patients) and providing them with free access to mHealth apps is essential. Ensuring security and making the applications easy to use, as well as educating users, are also important factors. Furthermore, promoting nurses' understanding of the benefits of mHealth and increasing their willingness to use these technologies is crucial.
护士和患者现在可以利用移动健康（mHealth）应用程序（或应用）的新机遇确保获得优质医疗保健服务。为了有效利用其潜力，了解护士对这项技术的使用情况至关重要。在此，我们研究了护士对使用mHealth应用的认知、态度和障碍。
我们在2023年4月8日至2023年10月5日期间进行了一项描述性分析横断面研究。 Cochr an公式估计样本量为267名护士。研究人员使用自行编制的问卷进行数据收集。我们使用描述性统计（均值、标准差、频率和百分比）和分析性统计（Pearson和Spearman相关性）进行数据分析。
大多数护士使用智能手机（86%），安装了安卓操作系统（82%），并且认为mHealth对护理有用（85%），但未将其用于患者护理（70.8%）。关于mHealth的认知、态度和障碍的平均得分分别为3.74±0.657、3.49±0.513和3.50±0.597。护士的认知与态度之间存在显著正相关（r = 0.289，P < 0.05），护士的认知与使用mHealth的障碍之间存在显著正相关（r = 0.171，P < 0.05），但护士的态度与障碍之间存在显著负相关（r = -0.031，P < 0.05）。
尽管护士对使用mHealth应用的认知相对良好且态度积极，但他们大多将这些技术用于患者护理以外的目的。护士认为患者缺乏数字健康素养（DHL）以及不愿使用这些技术是使用mHealth应用的主要障碍。提高用户（护士尤其是患者）的DHL并为他们提供免费使用mHealth应用的机会至关重要。确保安全性、使应用易于使用以及对用户进行教育也是重要因素。此外，促进护士对mHealth益处的理解并提高他们使用这些技术的意愿至关重要。
