m-Health Policy Readiness and Enabling Factors: Comparisons of Sub-Saharan Africa and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Countries

Background: As an innovative solution to poor access to care in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), m-health has gained wide attention in the past decade. Introduction: Despite enthusiasm from the global health community, LMICs have not demonstrated high uptake of m-health promoting policies or public investment. Materials and Methods: To benchmark the current status, this study compared m-health policy readiness scores between sub-Saharan Africa and high-income Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries using an independent two-sample t test. In addition, the enabling factors associated with m-health policy readiness were investigated using an ordinal logistic regression model. The study was based on the m-health policy readiness scores of 112 countries obtained from the World Health Organization Third Global Survey on e-Health. Results: The mean m-health policy readiness score for sub-Saharan Africa was statistically significantly lower than that for OECD countries (p = 0.02). The enabling factors significantly associated with m-health policy readiness included information and communication technology development index (odds ratio [OR] 1.57; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.12–2.2), e-health education for health professionals (OR 4.43; 95% CI 1.60–12.27), and the location in sub-Saharan Africa (OR 3.47; 95% CI 1.06–11.34). Discussion: The findings of our study suggest dual policy goals for m-health in sub-Saharan Africa. First, enhance technological and educational support for m-health. Second, pursue global collaboration for building m-health capacity led by sub-Saharan African countries with hands-on experience and knowledge. Conclusion: Globally, countries should take a systematic and collaborative approach in pursuing m-health policy with the focus on technological and educational support.