A Survey on Users’ Experience and Interests on Activity Trackers and Their Willingness of Sharing Personal Health Information from Activity Trackers

Abstract

Introduction:

The term “activity trackers” refers to all devices that provide physical activity-tracking functions. These devices include fitness bands, smartphones, and smartwatches. The data generated by sensors in these activity trackers are often presented to the user via health/wellness applications, creating a new type of personal health information. These inputs may be useful in helping the users’ activity level and health. Sharing of information of these data may help developers to develop a better device in the future and other users on achieving their activity goals.

Objective:

We aimed to study the experience of the current activity trackers users among the Pharmacy Department staffs in Miri Hospital and their interests in activity trackers. Apart from that, we also aimed to examine users’ willingness to share their personal health information from activity trackers and their reasons behind.

Methods:

A cross-sectional study was conducted by distributing questionnaires among the pharmacists and pharmacy assistants in Miri Hospital. We performed descriptive statistics and presented the data as frequencies and percentages for categorical data.

Results:

A total of 58 staffs of the Pharmacy Department, Miri Hospital took part in this survey. Twenty-eight respondents had never used any activity tracker; 16 respondents had used it in the past, while only 14 respondents currently using the device at the time of our survey. We found that 75.9% (n=44) of the respondents are not willing to share their activity data. The reasons cited are the irrelevancy of the information to others (n=27), privacy concerns (n= 25), time restrain (n=8) and embarrassment (n=2). As for sharing platforms, Instagram (n=10) and Facebook (n=7) are the popular activity data sharing platforms among the staffs followed by Twitter (n=1) and wearable software (n=1). The main reason that they are willing to share their activity data is to share their activity progress (n=9). Other causes are to get encouragement from others (n=3), to motivate others and to compete with friends (n=1).

Conclusion:

There is a lack of willingness to share activity data from activity trackers among Pharmacy Department staffs of Miri Hospital. The current popular social media for activity data sharing among the staffs were Instagram and Facebook. Amongst the staff that were involved in the study, only half are interested in using physical activity trackers. Therefore, the usage of physical trackers may increase in the future with better advancements in technology and if more awareness and knowledge on these devices are provided.