Exploration of Digital Health Technologies

Table 1. Sociodemographic characteristics of the study participants, 2024 (n = 403).

Characteristics	Category	*Frequency (percentage)**
Sex	Male	301 (74.7)
Sex	Female	102 (25.3)
University	Hawassa	233 (57.8)
	Dilla	120 (29.8)
	Jinka	50 (12.4)
Field of study	Biomedical engineering	22 (5.5)
	Chemical engineering	18 (4.5)
	Civil engineering	42 (10.4)
	Computer engineering	158 (39.2)
	CTM	39 (9.7)
	Electrical engineering	41 (10.2)
	ICT	34 (8.4)
	Others	49 (12.2)
Age of the respondents (years)	20–24	364 (90.3)
Age of the respondents (years)	> 24	39 (9.7)
Family residence	Urban	305 (75.7)
Family residence	Rural	98 (24.3)
Grade point average (GPA)	≤ 2.5	19 (4.7)
	> 2.5–3.0	97 (24.1)
	> 3.0–< 3.5	181 (44.9)
	≥ 3.5	106 (26.3)
Father’s occupation	Employee	152 (37.7)
	Farmer	88 (21.8)
	Merchant	92 (22.8)
	Others	71 (17.6)
Mother’s occupation	Employee	114 (28.3)
	Farmer	71 (17.6)
	Merchant	117 (29.0)
	Housewife	15 (3.7)
	Others	86 (21.3)
Father’s educational level	Able to read and write	87 (21.6)
	Primary education	66 (16.4)
	Secondary education	68 (16.9)
	Certificate or above	182 (45.2)
Mother’s educational level	Able to read and write	98 (24.3)
	Primary education	109 (27.0)
	Secondary education	69 (17.1)
	Certificate or above	127 (31.5)
Monthly family income	< 1,000 ETB	32 (7.9)
	1,000–3,000 ETB	47 (11.7)
	3,001–5,000 ETB	62 (15.4)
	5,001–10,000 ETB	123 (30.5)
	> 10,000 ETB	139 (34.5)
Pocket money received per month	≤ 1,000 ETB	213 (52.9)
Pocket money received per month	> 1,000 ETB	190 (47.1)

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* Percentages are rounded to 1 decimal place. CTM: Construction Technology and Management; ICT: information and communication technology; ETB: Ethiopian Birr.

Declarations

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the study participants for generously giving their time to provide the data. We extend our gratitude to Hawassa University for the financial support and resources that made this research possible.

AI-assisted work statement: During the preparation of this work, the authors used Grammarly to assist in refining the clarity and readability of the manuscript text. After using the tool, authors reviewed and edited the content as needed and we take full responsibility for the content of the publication.

Author contributions

MHL and BE: Conceptualization, Investigation, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing, Formal analysis. S Alemayehu, DH, TB, TY, HG, MAA, AY, and S Assefa: Conceptualization, Investigation, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. TK: Conceptualization, Investigation, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing, Funding acquisition, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Validation. All authors read and approved the submitted version.

Conflicts of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Ethical approval

This study was approved by the Research Ethics Review Committee (RERC) of Hawassa University (Ref. No.: RERC/11/2024, dated March 27, 2024), and official letters were received from the selected universities in which the data were collected. All procedures in this study were conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

Consent to participate

Informed consent to participate in the study was obtained from all participants prior to data collection.

Consent to publication

Not applicable.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon request with no conditions or restrictions for access.

Funding

This study was funded by Hawassa University through its annual thematic research grant. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Copyright

Publisher’s note

Open Exploration maintains a neutral stance on jurisdictional claims in published institutional affiliations and maps. All opinions expressed in this article are the personal views of the author(s) and do not represent the stance of the editorial team or the publisher.

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