RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access Knowledge, attitude, and use of mHealth technology among students in Ghana: A university-based survey Prince Peprah 1* , Emmanuel Mawuli Abalo 1 , Williams Agyemang-Duah 1 , Razak M Gyasi 2 , Okwei Reforce 1 , Julius Nyonyo 1 , Godfred Amankwaa 1 , Jones Amoako 1 and Paulinus Kaaratoore 1 Abstract Background: Interest in mHealth interventions, defined as the use of mobile phones to access healthcare is increasingly becoming popular globally. Given its technology-based applications, university students may be key clients of the mHealth adoption but studies are rare in sub-Saharan Africa. This study provides a snapshot and baseline evidence on knowledge, attitude and use of mHealth among university students in Ghana. Methods: Using a self-administered questionnaire, we collected data between April and June 2017 from 963 randomly sampled undergraduate students at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). Pearson’s Chi-square (χ 2 ) test assessed the differences between variables whilst logistic regression models estimated the independent predictors of use of mHealth with p < 0.05 as significant. Results: Knowledge on mHealth was moderately high. Specifically, more than half of the sample reported awareness of mHealth although the prevalence of use of mHealth stood at 51%. Logistic regressions revealed that mHealth use was positively associated with respondents’ year (second year: OR = 1.704, 95% CI: 1.185–2.452, and third year: OR = 1.528, 95% CI: 1.060–2.202), and monthly income (OR:3.112, 95%CI: 1.180-8.211). However, ethnicity [(OR = 0.761, 95% CI (0.580–0.997)] was negatively associated with the use of mHealth technology. Conclusion: Findings suggest that knowledge of mHealth among university students is low. Policy and public health interventions for urgent awareness creation and promotion of use of mHealth as well as its possible integration into the mainstream healthcare system in Ghana are timely. Keywords: mHealth, Knowledge, Utilization, University students, KNUST, Ghana, Integration Background Use of mobile phones (mHealth) to access healthcare in- cluding treatment, emergency medical response and education is gaining attention worldwide as a comple- mentary strategy for strengthening health systems em- phasizing the role of current environmental and technological improvements in the lives of people [1]. Information communication technology (ICT) has be- come the main social process used to deliver health care and to elevate public health [2]. Mobile phones and the internet are growing rapidly in the low-and middle- income countries (LMICs) and, has been recognized as powerful tools for improving efficiency in the health sec- tor [3]. Amongst analysts of global health, there is grow- ing enthusiasm for the possibilities opened up by these technologies, specifically the rapid spread of mobile phone coverage which includes substantial increasing ac- cess to health-related information, and advice and expert medical consultations [4]. Consequently, researchers in- dicate that we are reaching a ‘tipping point’ in the organ- isation of health systems in which new technology will drive new organisational arrangements [5]. Worldwide, so many mHealth projects are being im- plemented for healthcare delivery, disease surveillance, health education and health promotion behaviour change communication, and training of the health © The Author(s). 2019 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. * Correspondence: princepeprah15@gmail.com 1 Department of Geography and Rural Development, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana Full list of author information is available at the end of the article Peprah et al. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making (2019) 19:220 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-019-0947-0