Review of Key Stakeholders for an mHealth Pilot Study in Malawi Motivations and Expectations

The trial and evaluation of mobile health (mHealth) applications in society is necessary to explore the potential use and benefits of the solution post-trial. In recent years, there is a proliferation of mHealth projects developed and tested in the continent of Africa. The complexity of these projects means that there are typically many stakeholders who are integral to the success of the project. Yet, extant research falls short of capturing the motivations and expectations of multiple key stakeholders (i.e. direct and indirect users) in a single study towards participating in mHealth pilots. To address this gap in research a conceptual model is proposed and examined to explore the impact of motivations and expectations on both community health workers' (direct users) and caregivers' (indirect users) decision to participate in mHealth pilot studies. Findings reveal that both motivations and expectations positively impact decision making, i.e. their decision to participate in the study, with no significant differences emerging between these two groups of stakeholders.