Smart technology for healthcare: Exploring the antecedents of adoption intention of healthcare wearable technology

© The Author(s), 2019. Technological advancement and personalized health information has led to an increase in people using and responding to wearable technology in the last decade. These changes are often perceived to be beneficial, providing greater information and insights about health for users, organizations and healthcare and government. However, to date, understanding the antecedents of its adoption is limited. Seeking to address this gap, this cross-sectional study examined what factors influence users’ adoption intention of healthcare wearable technology. We used self-administrated online survey to explore adoption intentions of healthcare wearable devices in 171 adults residing in Hong Kong. We analyzed the data by Partial least squares – structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The results reveal that perceived convenience and perceived irreplaceability are key predictors of perceived useful ness, which in turn strengthens users’ adoption intention. Additionally, the results also reveal that health belief is one of the key predictors of adoption intention. This paper contributes to the extant literature by providing understanding of how to strengthen users’ intention to adopt healthcare wearable technology. This includes the strengthening of perceived convenience and perceived irreplaceability to enhance the perceived usefulness, incorporating the extensive communication in the area of healthcare messages, which is useful in strengthening consumers’ adoption intention in healthcare wearable technology

Influence of cultural factors on wearable technology acceptance in healthcare : an empirical study with Chinese and Swiss consumers

The market of healthcare wearables is compelling and expected to reach USD 14.4 billion by 2022 at a CAGR of 18.3%. The term “wearables” refers to “wearable technology or devices”, with computers incorporated into accessories and clothing worn on the body. Healthcare wearables can monitor real-time health vitals, diagnose diseases, and provide reminders for medicine or exercises. They are generally classified into consumer and medical-grade devices, but the distinction is increasingly blurred with advancing sensor technology. Global companies like Apple, Google, Fitbit, Xiaomi etc. developing wearables integrating medical technology aim to target consumers worldwide. The intention to accept these devices varies yet tremendously among people with diverse cultural backgrounds. In this study, certain patterns of influential factors associated with usage intention of healthcare wearables are investigated through comparing essential acceptance motives and usage barriers of Chinese and Swiss consumers. The different perceptions between both groups in view of varied national culture are examined. A conceptual model is established based on an existing framework of wearables acceptance, incorporating predictors adapted from theories of technology acceptance, health behavior, and privacy calculus. “China/Switzerland” distinguished by national culture acts as a moderator, which affect influence degree in the model. A web-based survey translated into Chinese and German is conducted in both countries respectively after modifications through pilot study. Finally, 110 valid Swiss and 201 Chinese respondents are included in data analysis

An acceptance model for the adoption of smart glasses technology by healthcare professionals

In the recent years, there has been an increase in the interest from different industries in the adoption of smart wearable devices in the light of their inevitable ubiquity. One type of these devices is the Augmented Reality Smart Glasses (ARSGs), which can have great effect in different areas through providing timely information to users. One of the industries that can significantly reap the benefits of this technology is healthcare. However, as healthcare is a very multi-dimensional industry, there is a need for a multifaceted look into the adoption and acceptance of smart glasses by health professionals. This study tends to examine the acceptance of smart glasses by healthcare professionals based on Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as there is an imperative for empirical studies on user perceptions, attitudes, and intentions. For this purpose, five external factors are extracted from the literature and field study, being integration with information systems, external effects, hands-free feature, technological compatibility, and documentation. The model is examined by using PLS-SEM methodology. This study found documentation to have the strongest impact on intention due to the substitution of paperwork by mobile devices and facilitation of continuous documentation

Examining consumers’ adoption of wearable healthcare technology: The role of health attributes

With the advancement of information technology, wearable healthcare technology has emerged as one of the promising technologies to improve the wellbeing of individuals. However, the adoption of wearable healthcare technology has lagged when compared to other well-established durable technology products, such as smartphones and tablets, because of the inadequate knowledge of the antecedents of adoption intention. The aim of this paper is to address an identified gap in the literature by empirically testing a theoretical model for examining the impact of consumers’ health beliefs, health information accuracy, and the privacy protection of wearable healthcare technology on perceived usefulness. Importantly, this study also examines the influences of perceived usefulness, consumer innovativeness, and reference group influence on the adoption intention of wearable healthcare technology. The model seeks to enhance understanding of the influential factors in adopting wearable healthcare technology. Finally, suggestions for future research for the empirical investigation of the model are provided

Employee acceptability of wearable mental workload monitoring in industry 4.0 : a pilot study on motivational and contextual framing

As Industry 4.0 will greatly challenge employee mental workload (MWL), research on objective wearable MWL-monitoring is in high demand. However, numerous research lines validating such technology might become redundant when employees eventually object to its implementation. In a pilot study, we manipulated two ways in which employees might perceive MWL-monitoring initiatives. We found that framing the technology in terms of serving intrinsic goals (e.g., improving health) together with an autonomy-supportive context (e.g., allowing discussion) yields higher user acceptability when compared to framing in terms of extrinsic goals (e.g., increasing productivity) together with a controlling context (e.g., mandating use). User acceptability still panned out neutral in case of the former, however - feeding into our own and suggested future work

Acceptance of Wearable Technology: A Meta-Analysis

Knowing what factors drive wearable technology adoption can help companies succeed in the competitive market of wearables. In this study, we conduct a meta-analysis on the relationships of technology acceptance of wearable technology based on the extant corpus (142 effect sizes from 44 samples collected in 11 countries). The results confirm the basic expectation that the core constructs of technology acceptance models as well as reveal that perceived enjoyment and usefulness are the most important to the adoption of wearables. However, more interestingly, a granular analysis of moderating effects shows that cultural factors including uncertainty avoidance, future orientation and humane orientation can significantly moderate the relationships between different determinants and wearable adoption. In addition, compared with other types of smart wearables, the users of smartwatches would place more weight on perceived self-expressiveness. These findings offer insights for future wearables-related research and also have practical implications for designing and developing successful wearable products

Using smartwatches for fitness and health monitoring: The UTAUT2 combined with threat appraisal as moderators

Recent advancements in smartwatch technology have led to several applications in continuous fitness and health monitoring. Considering the benefits of smartwatches, their low level of usage for fitness and health monitoring purposes, and the limited understanding of determinants of their usage, this study advances the body of knowledge by developing an innovative and comprehensive research model that integrates the extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2) with perceived vulnerability and perceived severity as moderators. The model was tested using partial least squares (PLS), in a quantitative study with data from 271 respondents from Malaysia. The results showed that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, facilitating conditions and hedonic motivation have positive impacts on behavioural intentions towards using smartwatches for health and fitness monitoring. Perceived vulnerability moderates positively the impacts of effort expectancy. Perceived abstract severity moderates positively the impacts of social influence and negatively the influence of hedonic motivation. The findings provide useful insights for smartwatch technology developers, marketers and managers in developing more effective devices and strategies and consequently promoting smartwatches as health monitoring devices. These outcomes extend the UTAUT2 and provide new insights into drivers of the use of smartwatches for fitness and health monitoring

Factors influencing consumers’ adoption and use of wearable technologies

Inactivity and increase in chronic health conditions caused by sedentary behavior have become a growing concern in many countries. In the past years, many health and wellbeing technologies have been launched to promote healthy behavior and help people to better monitor and track their activity level and performance throughout the day. The main goal of this thesis was to take a closer look at factors influencing consumers’ adoption and use of wearable technologies. For this purpose, a theoretical framework was built, highlighting key factors influencing perceived benefits, perceived risks and abandonment of wearable devices. The theoretical framework was tested by conducting an empirical study using netnography. Focus of the empirical study was narrowed down to the consumer market and activity trackers. Data of this study was collected from top rated reviews (N=60) in Amazon for three products: Fitbit Charge 2, Garmin Vivosmart HR+ and Polar A370. Sixty customer reviews were collected and analyzed using Atlas.ti. Results of this study showed that usefulness is the most influential factor on consumers’ perceived benefits of a wearable device. Perceived risks are mainly affected by financial and performance risks. Finally, data inaccuracy, build quality, synchronization, poor UI & UX design and system malfunction are the most impactful factors for dissatisfaction and device abandonment

Innovation diffusion of wearable mobile computing: Pervasive computing perspective

Wearable technology has become mainstream in this information age, it is needed to understand how the potential users of this emerging technology gain value from the innovation of the technology, consequently increasing users’ diffusion. Extant literature on the acceptance of mobile computing has been developing such as in mobile banking services and in healthcare service, however, the study of users’ acceptance about the emergence of wearable mobile computing is still at the early stages. This paper examines the development of a conceptual framework to understand the technology adoption factors for wearable mobile computing utilizing the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the Diffusion of Innovation Theory (DOI) and related factors on mobility and pervasive computing. Data of 272 respondents were collected using quantitative approach of survey based questionnaires conducted in Malaysia. The findings of this research revealed the factors of mobility (MOB), personalization (PN) and perceived enjoyment (PE) achieved the highest average score by respondents, followed by perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEU), observability (OBS), facilitating condition (FC) and social influence (SI). As wearable technology is perceived to be pervasive, mobility (MOB) and perceived enjoyment (PE) contribute the dominant factor for usage acceptance, while Perceived Usefulness (PU) from established model TAM, still plays an important factors in predicting innovation adoption of wearable mobile computing