Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
publishedVersion
Publication Date
1-2024
Abstract
This paper examines how older adults interact with fitness trackers and how that interaction influences their physical activity. We carried out qualitative interviews with 22 individuals between the ages of 55 and 72 who had used fitness trackers as part of a six-week field experiment investigating the effects of feedback from fitness trackers and the social influence of their spouses. From their comments, we derived an explorative process model explaining the mechanisms and the four stages of effects arising from personalised feedback, namely, cognitive, affective, conative, and intuitive. These effects were grouped into internal and external dimensions. Three types of goal-related decisions determined whether interviewees moved from the internal responses of cognition and emotion to the external response of behaviour change. The findings from this study elucidate how real-time personalised feedback can motivate physical activity among older adults and highlight the goal-related factors that influence this effect.
Keywords
behaviour change, fitness trackers, Mobile health, personalised feedback, real-time feedback, wearables
Discipline
Asian Studies | Social and Behavioral Sciences
Research Areas
Integrative Research Areas
Publication
Behaviour and Information Technology
Volume
43
Issue
4
First Page
736
Last Page
748
ISSN
0144-929X
Identifier
10.1080/0144929X.2023.2184180
Publisher
Taylor and Francis Group
Citation
LIN, Sapphire H.; LING, Rich; and ROSENTHAL, Sonny.
Opening the black box of fitness tracking: Understanding the mechanisms of feedback in motivating physical activity among older Singaporeans. (2024). Behaviour and Information Technology. 43, (4), 736-748.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cis_research/191
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2023.2184180