Wearables as Preventive Tools for Health

Background: Adopting a wearable, such as a fitness watch, can significantly enhance the practice of a physical activity, offering profound health benefits. Therefore, understanding the factors that motivate the adoption of a wearable is important.

Purpose: The aim of this study is to measure whether the wearable can be seen as a preventive tool for health. Prevention was direct if the wearables were used to monitor one’s health, and indirect if the wearables encouraged the practice of a sport, and therefore indirectly promoted health.

Methods: We carried out a web-based survey for 1017 people. Only those who completed the questionnaire and were practicing recreational sport were included (n=628). The respondents indicated whether they wore a wearable. Our variables focused on health-related topics (general state of health; chronic conditions); perception (concern about health, sport practice for health); and beliefs about wearable (impact on health, motivation, etc.). Analysis was done using Ordinary Least Squares model. The idea is to determine the link between the intention to purchase a wearable and the various variables used to validate or invalidate the hypotheses.

Results: People who owned a wearable or intended to acquire one were concerned about their physical health. The desire to follow one’s sports program and respect the instructions of one’s “coach” increased the likelihood of use or purchase. In addition, those in possession of a wearable were more likely to practice sport, while those intending to buy one were more likely to declare that they have health problems.

Conclusions: These preliminary results showed that connected devices used in sport could be seen as preventive tools.

Practical implications: These initial results suggest that the use of wearables in the context of sport may encourage better sports practices and help to monitor one’s state of health, therefore acting as a preventive tool.

Funding: EC2U.