Introducing an Integrated Model of Adults’ Wearable Activity Tracker Use and Obesity Information–Seeking Behaviors From a National Quota Sample Survey (Preprint)

Abstract

Research from multiple perspectives to investigate adults’ use of wearable activity-tracking devices is limited. We offer a multiperspective model and provide empirical evidence of what leads to frequent usage of wearable health technologies from a large, nationally representative survey sample.

This study aims to explore factors affecting the use of wearable activity-tracking devices among health consumers from the perspectives of individual health beliefs (perceived severity, perceived susceptibility, perceived benefits, and self-efficacy) and information-seeking behaviors.

Our Integrated Model of Wearable Activity Tracker (IMWAT) use and proposed hypotheses were validated and tested with data collected from a telephone survey with a national quota sample. The data were analyzed using a variety of statistical techniques, including structural equation analysis.

The sample comprised 2006 participants. Our results showed that the perceived benefits of physical activity, perceived susceptibility, and self-efficacy toward obesity were significant predictors of information-seeking behaviors, which, in turn, mediated their effects on the use of wearable activity trackers. Perceptions of obesity severity directly promoted wearable device usage.

This study provided a new and powerful theoretical model that combined the health beliefs and information-seeking behaviors behind the use of wearable activity trackers in the adult population. The findings provide meaningful implications for developers and designers of wearable health technology products and will assist health informatics practitioners and obesity prevention communicators.