Improving healthcare with wearables: Overcoming the barriers to adoption

Abstract

Wearable technology devices (WTDs) record exercise activity and capture vital health statistics. These details can be shared with healthcare providers to monitor patients, manage chronic illness and save lives. The adoption of these devices continues to grow, but so does their abandonment. Within the context of healthcare, protection motivation theory (PMT) explains that individuals seek to protect themselves from health threats that they perceive to be severe. We combine this theory with the unified theory of adoption in order to investigate the factors that motivate individuals to adopt WTD to manage their health. The results of the quantitative study show that consumers need to be convinced that the data collected from these devices can lead to improved health outcomes.