Older adults' experiences of using a wearable activity tracker with health professional feedback over a 12-month randomised controlled trial

Abstract

Objective: Wearable activity trackers can help older adults remain physically active. However, knowledge of the user experience during long-term use is scarce. Therefore, this study examined older adults' experiences with, and perceptions of, wearable activity trackers combined with health professional feedback after a year's use as part of a randomised controlled trial.

Methods: Twenty older adults (73.6 ± 5.5 years) who had used a Jawbone UP24 activity tracker for 12 months during a randomised controlled trial were recruited for this study. All participants had at least one chronic condition. Acceptability data relating to activity tracker wear time was combined with focus group data to explore participants experiences of long-term activity tracker use. Data was analysed using thematic analysis.

Results: The activity tracker was well-accepted with the device worn on an average of 86% of possible days and participants reported an overall positive experience. Four themes were identified: (a) increased sense of awareness of activity levels is related to motivation; (b) the level of engagement with the activity tracker influences the user experience; (c) the role of feedback from a health professional in providing ongoing support; d) the role of habits in supporting long-term behaviour change.

Conclusions: The use of an activity tracker combined with health professional support can assist older adults to maintain their activity levels over 12 months. Consideration should be given to the previous technology experience of users and the design and accuracy of an activity tracker when recommending their use in a research or clinical setting.

Keywords: Physical activity; older adults; telemedicine; wearables.

Figure 1.

Study design indicating time points for participant recruitment, randomisation, data collection. All intervention groups included usual care. Note that outcome measures were also obtained at the commencement of Strength2Strength (S2S) but not used in the analysis of the randomised controlled trial (RCT).

Figure 2.

The Jawbone UP24 activity tracker, an example of the Jawbone UP application (app) user interface showing progress towards daily step count, and an example text message sent to activity tracker) activity tracker intervention participants.