Development and psychometric testing of a new measure of the determinants that influence the adoption of WhatsApp in hospitals

Anna De Benedictis, Emanuele Lettieri, Michela Piredda, Raffaella Gualandi, Maddalena De Maria and Daniela Tartaglini

PLOS ONE, 2021, vol. 16, issue 12, 1-14

Abstract: Background: Healthcare contexts are witnessing a growing use of applications to support clinical processes and to communicate between peers and with patients. An increasing number of hospital professionals use instant-messaging applications such as WhatsApp in their daily work. Previous research has mainly focused on the advantages and risks of WhatsApp usage in different clinical settings, but limited evidence is available about whether and how individual and organizational determinants can influence the use of WhatsApp in hospitals. Moreover, instruments to explore this phenomenon are lacking. A theoretical four-factor model based on the ‘Technology Acceptance Model’ and the Institutional Theory, guided the development of a new measure of the individual and institutional determinants of WhatsApp usage in hospitals. Aim: To develop and psychometrically test the questionnaire ‘Digital Innovation Adoption in Hospitals’. Method: A panel of researchers and clinical experts generated an initial pool of 35 items by identifying and adapting items from existing measures. These items were assessed for content and face validity by fourteen experts. The final 28-item ‘Digital Innovation Adoption in Hospitals’ questionnaire comprising four sections (Perceived risks, Perceived usefulness, Regulative factors and Normative factors) was administered online to nurses and physicians. Construct validity was tested through confirmatory factor analysis. Results: The sample included 326 hospital nurses and physicians. The theoretical four-factors model was confirmed and the confirmatory factor analysis yielded acceptable fit indexes. The correlations between the factors were significant and ranged from -0.284 to 0.543 (p

Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0262003

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0262003

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