It’s Cool to be Healthy! The Effect of Perceived Coolness on the Adoption of Fitness Bands and Health Behaviour

Contemporary technology success is frequently associated with the competitive advantage of being cool. A fitness band is one of the smart wearable devices promoting health behaviours, which is one of the cool lifestyle trends in modern societies. Although past research established the profound effects of coolness on user technology acceptance, the influencing role in fostering health behaviour remained obscure. To bridge the existing literature gap, the current study aims to examine the perception of coolness as a higher-order construct with multiple dimensions, namely originality, attractiveness, and sub-cultural appeals, by investigating the direct effect on fitness band adoption and indirect influence on users’ health behaviour. An online survey was conducted on 280 fitness band users, and the data was subsequently analysed via the Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The study results demonstrated that the perceived coolness of fitness bands significantly affects users’ device adoption levels, which subsequently influence personal health behaviour. This study thus contributes to health communication research by testing the coolness concept and developing the diffusioninnovation framework from current human-computer interaction literature. The findings would guide future developers of fitness bands to emphasise the coolness functions for higher degrees of adoption and positive impact on society

African Handbook of Climate Change Adaptation

This open access book discusses current thinking and presents the main issues and challenges associated with climate change in Africa. It introduces evidences from studies and projects which show how climate change adaptation is being - and may continue to be successfully implemented in African countries. Thanks to its scope and wide range of themes surrounding climate change, the ambition is that this book will be a lead publication on the topic, which may be regularly updated and hence capture further works. Climate change is a major global challenge. However, some geographical regions are more severly affected than others. One of these regions is the African continent. Due to a combination of unfavourable socio-economic and meteorological conditions, African countries are particularly vulnerable to climate change and its impacts. The recently released IPCC special report "Global Warming of 1.5º C" outlines the fact that keeping global warming by the level of 1.5º C is possible, but also suggested that an increase by 2º C could lead to crises with crops (agriculture fed by rain could drop by 50% in some African countries by 2020) and livestock production, could damage water supplies and pose an additonal threat to coastal areas. The 5th Assessment Report produced by IPCC predicts that wheat may disappear from Africa by 2080, and that maize— a staple—will fall significantly in southern Africa. Also, arid and semi-arid lands are likely to increase by up to 8%, with severe ramifications for livelihoods, poverty eradication and meeting the SDGs. Pursuing appropriate adaptation strategies is thus vital, in order to address the current and future challenges posed by a changing climate. It is against this background that the "African Handbook of Climate Change Adaptation" is being published. It contains papers prepared by scholars, representatives from social movements, practitioners and members of governmental agencies, undertaking research and/or executing climate change projects in Africa, and working with communities across the African continent. Encompassing over 100 contribtions from across Africa, it is the most comprehensive publication on climate change adaptation in Africa ever produced