Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Human Factors
Date Submitted: Jul 15, 2020
Date Accepted: Oct 25, 2020
Smart Health on the Move, But Can We Keep Up? Using Performance Tests to Measure Data and Strategic Internet-of-Things Skills when Using Activity Trackers
ABSTRACT
Background:
In potential, health Internet-of-Things (IoT) could provide insights in current health, in potential pitfalls, and in supporting a healthier lifestyle. However, in order to enjoy these benefits, people need skills to use the IoT. These ‘IoT skills’ are expected to differ across people, causing a new digital divide.
Objective:
The objective of our study was to assess whether a sample of the general Dutch population can keep up using health IoT. Two types of IoT skills–data and strategic IoT skills–were measured in a performance test in which subjects had to complete health-related tasks in the App environment of the activity tracker they used throughout this study.
Methods:
From April 1, 2019, through December 12, 2019, 100 participants participated in this study. Participants were recruited via (digital) flyers and door-to-door canvassing. A selective quota sample was used divided over equal subsamples of gender, age, and education. Further inclusion criteria were smart phone possession and no prior experience using activity trackers. The study was conducted through three waves over a period of two weeks. In wave 1, a questionnaire was administered measuring participants’ operational, mobile, and information internet skills, and participants were introduced to the activity tracker. After one week of getting acquainted with the activity tracker, a task-based performance test was conducted in wave 2 to measure the levels of data IoT skills and the strategic IoT skill component ‘action plan construction’. Then, after another week in which participants were asked to use the activity tracker more deliberately, a performance test was conducted in wave 3 to measure the level of the strategic skill component ‘action plan execution’.
Results:
The participants successfully completed 54% (13.5/25) of the data IoT skills tasks. Regarding strategic IoT tasks, completion rates were 56% (10.1/18) for action plan construction, and 43% (3.9/9) for action plan execution. None of the participants was able to complete all the data IoT skills tasks, nor were they able to complete all the strategic IoT skills tasks regarding action plan construction or its execution. Age and education were the most important contributors to participants’ IoT skill levels, except for the ability to execute an action plan strategically. Furthermore, participants’ level of information internet skills contributed to their level of data IoT skills.
Conclusions:
this study found that Dutch citizens’ data and strategic IoT skills are underdeveloped for health purposes. Especially, those who could benefit the most from health IoT are the ones having most trouble using it: the elderly and lower educated.
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