Four Ironies of Self-quantification: Wearable Technologies and the Quantified Self

Sleep characterization with smart wearable devices: a call for standardization and consensus recommendations

The general public increasingly adopts smart wearable devices to quantify sleep characteristics and dedicated devices for sleep assessment. The rapid evolution of technology has outpaced the ability to implement validation approaches and demonstrate relevant clinical applicability. There are untapped opportunities to validate and refine consumer devices in partnership with scientists in academic institutions, patients, and the private sector to allow effective integration into clinical management pathways and facilitate trust in adoption once reliability and validity have been demonstrated. We call for the formation of a working group involving stakeholders from academia, clinical care and industry to develop clear professional recommendations to facilitate appropriate and optimized clinical utilization of such technologies.

Analysis of consumers’ negative perceptions of health tracking in insurance – a value sacrifice approach

Purpose

This paper explores and identifies customer-value-related sacrifices that consumers attach to interactive health/life insurance. This paper aims to increase understanding of why individual consumers are not willing to embrace behaviour-tracking-based insurance applications.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors analysed data from a qualitative survey of Finnish insurance consumers who were not keen on adopting interactive insurance products.

Findings

Developed through thematic analysis, the framework presented in this paper illustrates consumers’ value sacrifices on four dimensions: economic, functional, emotional and symbolic value.

Research limitations/implications

The framework and insights emerging in the study hold several implications related to increased understanding of consumers’ perceptions of insurance and to developing interactive insurance services. In addition, this work provides a promising foundation and avenues for further considerations related to digital ethics in insurance.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first piece applying a value sacrifice perspective in studying consumers’ unwillingness to adopt interactive insurance products.

Behavior Change Techniques in Wrist-Worn Wearables to Promote Physical Activity: Content Analysis

Background

Decreasing levels of physical activity (PA) increase the incidences of noncommunicable diseases, obesity, and mortality. To counteract these developments, interventions aiming to increase PA are urgently needed. Mobile health (mHealth) solutions such as wearable sensors (wearables) may assist with an improvement in PA.

Objective

The aim of this study is to examine which behavior change techniques (BCTs) are incorporated in currently available commercial high-end wearables that target users’ PA behavior.

Methods

The BCTs incorporated in 5 different high-end wearables (Apple Watch Series 3, Garmin Vívoactive 3, Fitbit Versa, Xiaomi Amazfit Stratos 2, and Polar M600) were assessed by 2 researchers using the BCT Taxonomy version 1 (BCTTv1). Effectiveness of the incorporated BCTs in promoting PA behavior was assessed by a content analysis of the existing literature.

Results

The most common BCTs were goal setting (behavior), action planning, review behavior goal(s), discrepancy between current behavior and goal, feedback on behavior, self-monitoring of behavior, and biofeedback. Fitbit Versa, Garmin Vívoactive 3, Apple Watch Series 3, Polar M600, and Xiaomi Amazfit Stratos 2 incorporated 17, 16, 12, 11, and 11 BCTs, respectively, which are proven to effectively promote PA.

Conclusions

Wearables employ different numbers and combinations of BCTs, which might impact their effectiveness in improving PA. To promote PA by employing wearables, we encourage researchers to develop a taxonomy specifically designed to assess BCTs incorporated in wearables. We also encourage manufacturers to customize BCTs based on the targeted populations.

The Quantified Woman: Exploring Perceptions on Health App Use among Austrian Females of Reproductive Age

Smartphones have become the most important commodity for today’s digitalized society. Besides direct interpersonal communication, their most used features are third-party applications (apps). Apps for monitoring health parameters (health apps) are extremely popular, and their users are part of the Quantified Self movement. Little knowledge is available on how health apps are perceived by a female target audience, the Quantified Woman. We conducted a study among Austrian females of reproductive age (n = 150) to analyze prevalence, perceived benefits, and readiness for health app use. In the cross-sectional online German survey, nearly all participants used these apps (98.0%), predominantly for monitoring physical activity and female health (both 31.3%). For the latter, participants used a large variety of different apps for monitoring contraception and menstruation. Perceived benefits and readiness of health app use were only of medium range. Our study assessed aspects of health app use in an understudied segment of the general population. From a Public Health perspective, the Quantified Woman could be empowered by health data collection by enabling her to take active control over how her health graphs develop. We suggest assuring data security and privacy for sensitive female health data collected by health apps.