research-article

Wearable Activity Trackers in Managing Routine Health and Fitness of Indian Older Adults: Exploring Barriers to Usage

Authors:

Pallavi Rao Gadahad,

Anirudha JoshiAuthors Info & Claims

NordiCHI '22: Nordic Human-Computer Interaction Conference

Article No.: 7, Pages 1 - 11

https://doi.org/10.1145/3546155.3546645

Published: 08 October 2022 Publication History

Abstract

Geriatrics research has highlighted the importance of managing routine health and fitness for older adults to improve their quality of life. Correspondingly, public health organizations have given specific guidelines on recommended levels of physical activities for this age group. Despite these efforts, many older adults do not engage in physical activities. Fitness technologies such as wearable activity trackers can motivate people to be regular in their physical activities. However, the adoption and usage of these devices among older adults remains low, especially in developing countries. We present findings from a longitudinal qualitative study with five older adults from India who use wearable activity trackers. We wanted to understand how they currently use these devices and what barriers they face in getting the most out of them. We trained the participants to help them overcome some of these barriers. Though initially, participants used their trackers only to track their steps, they could learn to use these devices more proactively after our training sessions. From the study findings, we suggest that activity trackers incorporate short how-to videos in local languages, speech input, voice prompts, personalized feedback on progress, and Q&A chat-bots to help older adults overcome some barriers.

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Cited By

Rao PJoshi AD’Souza N(2025)Investigating Contextual Factors in Technology-Based Solutions Designed to Support Health and Fitness Routines for Older Adults: A Systematic ReviewHuman-Computer Interaction. Design and Research10.1007/978-3-031-80829-6_8(161-192)Online publication date: 14-Feb-2025
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-80829-6_8
Dotch EMavrovounioti ADu WAnkrah EJohnson JMin AHayes G(2024)Accessibility through Awareness of Noise Sensitivity Management and Regulation PracticesProceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility10.1145/3663548.3675630(1-12)Online publication date: 27-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3663548.3675630
Rey BSakamoto YSin JIrani P(2024)Understanding User Preferences of Voice Assistant Answer Structures for Personal Health Data QueriesProceedings of the 6th ACM Conference on Conversational User Interfaces10.1145/3640794.3665552(1-15)Online publication date: 8-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3640794.3665552
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Wearable Activity Trackers in Managing Routine Health and Fitness of Indian Older Adults: Exploring Barriers to Usage
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)
    1. HCI design and evaluation methods
      1. User studies

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NordiCHI '22: Nordic Human-Computer Interaction Conference

October 2022

1091 pages

ISBN:9781450396998

DOI:10.1145/3546155

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Published: 08 October 2022

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NordiCHI '22: Nordic Human-Computer Interaction Conference

October 8 - 12, 2022

Aarhus, Denmark

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Rao PJoshi AD’Souza N(2025)Investigating Contextual Factors in Technology-Based Solutions Designed to Support Health and Fitness Routines for Older Adults: A Systematic ReviewHuman-Computer Interaction. Design and Research10.1007/978-3-031-80829-6_8(161-192)Online publication date: 14-Feb-2025
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-80829-6_8
Dotch EMavrovounioti ADu WAnkrah EJohnson JMin AHayes G(2024)Accessibility through Awareness of Noise Sensitivity Management and Regulation PracticesProceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility10.1145/3663548.3675630(1-12)Online publication date: 27-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3663548.3675630
Rey BSakamoto YSin JIrani P(2024)Understanding User Preferences of Voice Assistant Answer Structures for Personal Health Data QueriesProceedings of the 6th ACM Conference on Conversational User Interfaces10.1145/3640794.3665552(1-15)Online publication date: 8-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3640794.3665552
Gadahad PJoshi A(2024)“So, Should I Walk Today or Not?” Understanding Concerns and Queries on Health and Fitness Among Indian Older AdultsProceedings of the 14th Indian Conference on Human-Computer Interaction10.1007/978-981-97-4335-3_2(23-49)Online publication date: 3-Aug-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-4335-3_2
Kim JPark JOakley I(2023)SonarAuth: Using Around Device Sensing to Improve Smartwatch Behavioral BiometricsAdjunct Proceedings of the 2023 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing & the 2023 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computing10.1145/3594739.3610696(83-87)Online publication date: 8-Oct-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3594739.3610696

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