Facilitating health behavior change with wearable technology

Abstract

Modern day health problems, such as sedentary behavior, inactivity, and poor sleeping habits are challenging the lives of both individuals and health care systems around the world. Wearable technologies, which use sensor technology to track various health parameters, provide new ways for monitoring personal health. Ideally, the use of wearables would mitigate these health issues. However, while the popularity of wearable devices has increased rapidly during the past years, little attention has been paid to the health effects of using the technology. Thus, this thesis studies the perceived health benefits of using wearable technology to analyze whether wearables are used for simply recording information or, in fact, changing health behavior.

The empirical part of the thesis was conducted as a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews, to understand the users’ experiences of using wearable technology. The interview data were analyzed thematically with the help of an analytical framework that was developed for the thesis.

The findings suggest that the use of wearable technology increases the users’ awareness of their current health status and habits, which further results in changes in health behavior, provided that the users are motivated to change their behavior. The perceived health benefits of wearable technology use include increased activity, better sleep, and smarter training and recovery behavior.